At the end of November 2000 Clapham, Austwick, Lawkland, Ribblebanks, Long Preston and Cowling were designated as the Craven areas eligible for support and funds under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) Priority Three of the Objective 2 programme 2000 – 2006.

Craven District Council submitted initial Local Development and Employment Pacts (LDEP’s) on 16 February 2001 to Government Office Yorkshire and The Humber (GOYH).  A letter from Government Office was received on 8 March 2001 awarding a “notional financial allocation” to Craven based on population figures in the target communities. It was from this that the ‘phase 1’ programme delivery took place.

As a result of the programme mid term review at the end of 2003 updated LDEP’s were written and approved by GOYH, which was used to deliver phase 2 of the programme in Craven to the end of 2006.