WREN's 10th Anniversary Celebrations
In September 2007 WREN celebrated its 10th Birthday and WRG, the donor landfill company that makes WREN funding opportunities happen, invited representatives from many organisations involved in the Landfill Communities Fund to share in a celebration of the Scheme, its achievements and WREN’s role in many of those achievements.
WREN has provided funding opportunities to over 4,000 projects in that period. The portfolio of projects is vast, from skateparks and village halls to play areas, bats to bluebells and windmills to Cathedrals these 4,000 plus projects have seen over £100 million of LCF monies committed to them.
To a packed audience Jim Meredith, Chief Executive of WRG commended Government, Treasury and the Regulator for their key roles in making the Scheme what it is today and for signalling the continuance of the Scheme for several years to come. He also pointed out that the real heroes are those organisations that seek the funding, as without them the benefits of this funding would not be evident – and these organisations range from self help community groups looking for play facilities to conservation groups such as RSPB, county based Wildlife Trusts and The Woodland Trust.
The Rt. Honourable Gwyneth Dunwoody MP for Crewe and Nantwich, a long standing supporter of WREN and the WRG Challenge described how she had watched WREN grow in both maturity and responsibility and that she looked forward to continuing support for communities from WREN.
Graham Wynne, Chief Executive of RSPB commented that the significant role WREN played in the development of RSPB reserves around England, Scotland and Wales was not to be underestimated, and that WREN often funded elements that others wouldn’t simply because they weren’t “sexy” enough!
There was a request from Sylvia Brown, Chief Executive of Action for Communities in Rural England (ACRE) that government and funding organisations look to address the continuing erosion of facilities and services for rural communities across the country and that she was grateful to organisations such as WREN for their consistent and continuing support and funding in this area.
The evening concluded with WRG recognising projects of distinction who were presented with a certificate and cheque for £500. Projects recognised were:
- Community Buildings - Little Milton Village Hall, Oxfordshire
- Children's Play - Wyndham Park play area, Grantham, Lincolnshire
- Sport & Leisure - Edinburgh Skate Park facility
- Conservation and Biodiversity - RSPB, Old Moor, Dearne Valley, South Yorkshire
- Maintaining our Heritage - Dragon Hall, Norwich, Norfolk
- Hands on Volunteering, Paddington Meadows, Woolston, Cheshire
