Thank you for bearing with us whilst we organise our communications in response to the ongoing situation with the COVID-19 pandemic.
As part of Welsh Government’s response to COVID-19, the priorities of the Wales Rural Network will be changing slightly to reflect the changed needs of you, our stakeholders, during this unprecedented situation.
We will be trying to share as much useful information and guidance as possible, including the most recent official guidance issued by Welsh Government as well as various resources and helplines that you can contact for support.
Guidance from Welsh Government can be found on the Gov.Wales website.
If you are based in a rural area and you have any queries, or would like to report an emerging situation in your community then please don’t hesitate to contact us via our general mailbox and we will do our best to respond or point you in the right direction: ruralnetwork@gov.wales.
Please also get in touch if you are aware of any community initiatives providing on-the-ground support during this time – we would welcome the opportunity to share this through our channels.
If you have questions relating to your business and COVID-19, please visit the Business Wales site.
Our newsletter will be issued on an ad hoc basis going forward as new information becomes available to us – you can sign up here.
Please note that until further notice our small team will be working from home but still contactable via phone, email and our social media channels within core working hours, Monday-Friday.
Rural Payments Wales (RPW) statement on coronavirus (COVID-19)
In response to the UK Government and Public Health Wales (PHW) advice on COVID 19, RPW have made changes to some of its services to ensure the health, safety and well-being of staff and customers at this challenging time.
The COVID 19 global crisis is affecting us all. RPW’s first priority is to maintain public health in-line with Government advice, while aiming to continue serving its customers, through the various and different Rural Development Programme (RDP) 2014-2020 grant schemes they administer.
RPW recognises that this situation is evolving very quickly with advice likely to change at short notice. Taking this into account, they will look to make decisions as early as possible and on a case by case basis, whilst taking into account all official advice at that time.
If you should experience any impact on the delivery of your project as a result of coronavirus (COVID-19), please contact them immediately.
To help deal with the current crisis RPW have reopened the SMU mailbox: SMU@gov.wales .
Please ensure that you use the mailbox address only for all correspondence and clearly state the project title and case ID where possible, as individual staff may become unavailable at short notice.
CUSTOMER CONTACT CENTRE
The RPW customer contact centre is currently open as normal to accept telephone calls during the following hours;
- Monday – Thursday 8.30am to 5pm
- Friday 8.30am to 4.30pm
However, the services is currently limited to calls in respect of claims and accruals by the financial year-end.
All other project enquires should be submitted, in writing, via the SMU Mailbox.
Please keep checking the website for the latest information.
Thank you for your patience, and stay safe and healthy.