Tribe helped client WREN build relations with Culture minister Ed Vaizey at the end of June, when he was invited to tour projects funded by the group in his constituency of Didcot.
The minister discovered how funding from landfill is helping to create a new community garden, and took part in a TribeTV video to explain why he feels WREN funding is so valuable to community projects throughout the UK.
Mr Vaizey, MP for Wantage, which includes Didcot, dropped in to the Great Western Drive estate on June 25 to learn how a £22,800 grant from WREN and the Landfill Communities Fund (LCF) will be used to create a new communal garden to bring local residents, young and old, together.
Mr Vaizey also visited Didcot Railway Centre to see how £20,000 from WREN had been used to restore and revive a World War Two Beehive air raid shelter.
The MP visit was co-ordinated by Tribe for WREN - a not-for-profit organisation that awards grants to community, heritage and environmental projects across the UK on behalf of Waste Recycling Group (WRG). The day also involved Mr Vaizey in a TribeTV video, which will help to help raise awareness of the importance of WREN’s funding to local communities.
In 2009, WREN awarded £22,800 to Soha Housing and Groundwork UK to create a new communal garden in Didcot. When completed, it will be located within metres of a play area which was also refurbished thanks to a £15,000 donation from WREN. Volunteers will learn new skills helping to design, create and maintain the new green space, with work starting in summer and ending in September.
Mr Vaizey, Peter Cox and Matthew Cox from WREN visited the site of green space project, met with pupils from Didcot Girls’ School and representatives from Soha Housing to talk about plans for the garden and how it aims to transform the estate into a greener, cleaner, safer place.
Jane Cox, project manager for sustainable communities at Soha Housing, said WREN’s funding had been critical in making the community garden a reality.
“The donation of £22,800 is no small amount,” she added. “It means we have been able to consult with local people thoroughly, to design a garden based on their views and ideas. Residents have been extremely enthusiastic in putting forward their ideas, which will feed into the project, resulting in a fantastic new green space in the middle of this housing estate.”
On visiting the Didcot Railway Centre, Mr Vaizey said that WREN’s commitment to funding heritage projects was extremely important, especially in times of funding cutbacks.
“The restored Beehive shelters at the Railway Centre give Didcot schoolchildren the chance to experience what is was like living in wartime Britain,” he added.
“They are important artefacts from our history, and it’s vital that heritage funding like this continues so that future generations can learn about our past.”
In 2009, WREN gave away almost £400,000 of funding to projects in Oxfordshire. Since 1998, WREN has paid out more than £4million to projects in the county, money generated by the LCF which has made a significant impact in the area and supported projects that make a real different to people’s lives.
Posted: 08/07/2010