Up to today (Friday) we’ve offered grants to 123 businesses at a total of £644,426.

The grant scheme was set up to support small and medium sized businesses severely  affected by the flooding of 18th – 20th November 2009, helping them recover quickly and trade successfully and sustainable. 

Funded by NWDA grants are available to support interest relief, specialist advice, marketing and training.  The scheme is being administered by Cumbria Chamber of Commerce, working in partnership with Cumbria County Council, Business Link Northwest and WCDA.

Over the coming months as people see the benefits of the activities these grants are supporting we’ll be telling you more about how businesses are using this funding successfully to help them recover and move forward strongly.

We’re delighted that we’ve been able to access this funding to support businesses affected by the flooding and the ongoing structural issues caused by it, in particular the loss of the Workington bridges.

With the Open for Business message vital to the county’s economy we continue to be careful in our media activity but we are continuing to work behind the scenes with Cumbria County Council regarding the severe travel issues in West Cumbria and to try to ensure the new temporary bridge in Workington is in place as soon as possible.