Community hub gains boost from funding pot
A South Staffordshire community hub has received a funding boost to help with creating an area of natural beauty.
The Edward Marsh Centre in Kinver has been awards £20,000 from The Severn Trent Community Fund as part of a fund to reward projects with a nature or environmental theme.
Severn Trent customers voted for their favourite project in each funding category, with Bronze projects awarded £5,000, Silver £10,000 and Gold £20,000, on the Severn Trent website, with more than 9,000 people casting their vote.
In total, 33 organisations took their places on the starting blocks, with 20 receiving the full funding allocation at each tier and 13 finishing as runners-up, receiving £1,000 towards their projects.
The Edward Marsh Centre was awarded a Gold tier award for its plan to create an area of natural beauty, including trees and soft planting to increase biodiversity in the newly created Sterrymere wetland.
The funding from Severn Trent is part of the company’s commitment to deliver £10 million of grants to good causes over five years, following the company’s appointment as official Nature and Carbon Neutral Partner for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Neil Morrison, from Severn Trent, said: “We share the Commonwealth Games’ vision for positive, sustainable improvements to our environment and the natural world around us.
"This is a fundamental part of our core business, as demonstrated through our commitment to plant 2022 hectares of forests to help offset the carbon produced by the Games, alongside broader projects including the Get River Positive programme to protect and enhance our waterways, and the £566 million Green Recovery Programme.
“We want to encourage the next generation of water, waste and environmental champions and the range of projects submitted for this fund have been absolutely fantastic, demonstrating a really broad variety of environmental and nature-themed schemes from organisations that can make a real difference in their communities.”
Two allotment groups in Walsall were among runners-up in the fund and both received £1,000 towards their planned projects.
Beech Tree Road Allotment Group received funding for expansion of its education and support programmes to local schools and the community, while Goscote Lane Allotments was funded for the regeneration of a wildlife pond and creation of community-friendly area.
