The Prince's Countryside Fund has again opened for applications.

The fund tackles some of the major issues facing rural areas by providing grants to that benefit rural communities.

Areas for support include service provision, farm businesses and rural enterprises, training opportunities for young people and educating people about the value of the countryside.

A revised application form and eligibility and guidance documents are available to download from the Prince's Countryside Fund website.

A total of £500,000 will be available in this round of funding and applications can be made for up to £50,000.

Applications will be accepted from organisations, but not from individuals or statutory bodies.

Applicants can be, but do not need to be, charities.

All applicants must however be able to clearly demonstrate a significant level of public benefit arising from their activities.

Any private benefit arising must be incidental.

Certain types of work and organisations that cannot be funded.

These are:

• Statutory bodies, such as local authorities, NHS bodies, or work where there is statutory responsibility to provide funding.

• Religious bodies where the funding will be for religious purposes.

• Political organisations where the funding will be used for political purposes.

• Projects where the work has begun and money has been spent in anticipation of receiving funding.

• Projects where the funding would displace existing funding streams, such as agri-environment schemes.

• Projects which do not demonstrate sufficient public benefit and in which private benefit is more than incidental.

School projects are eligible for funding where the project falls outside of statutory obligations.

Completed applications should be emailed to pcfapplication@bitc.org.uk. Deadline for applications is 5pm on 19 October.