March 2018

Press Release

Funding Boost for Chiswick House & Gardens Trust

Chiswick House & Gardens Trust is today celebrating a £43,558.00 funding boost from SUEZ Communities Trust for Restoring and Improving the Education and Volunteer Centre at Chiswick House & Gardens.

The Trust wishes to restore and improve the existing education and volunteer centre to make the building safe and provide a better resource for our local community. At present, the rooms are tired, and there are areas of damp and water ingress. The Trust proposes to carry out vital repairs and improve the facilities with provision of a sink and better storage, to enable us to welcome more primary and secondary school age children, offer them a programme that includes relevant educational stimuli, and support a broader range of activities both indoors and outdoors on the site. The current location adjacent to the kitchen garden will encourage use of the equipment, while the Trust’s stakeholder research has clearly emphasised the need for better provision of educational facilities which are used by both our volunteer corpus of 150 and by our annual education visitors who number more than 4000 children and adults. Our volunteers and gardening team and the programmes we run have won numerous awards, including being named the top Heritage Park, winning the RHS  its our neighbourhood  award, winning the  our community  50th anniversary category and being awarded gold for the Gardens generally and the kitchen garden in particular at London in Bloom 2017. With better educational facilities we want to extend these achievements so even more people can take part as volunteers or students in the gardens programme.

“The education and volunteer centre at Chiswick House and Gardens is a much-used and vital space for our loyal volunteers, archivists and school groups.  It’s current state of dilapidation is depressing, unsightly and ultimately will lead to the building’s ruin.  We are delighted and grateful that Suez Communities Trust is funding this much-needed refurbishment to make the building sound.  The many users will be uplifted by these improvements.”

Clare O’Brien, Director, Chiswick House and Gardens Trust, March 2018

Marek Gordon, Chairman of SUEZ Communities Trust added “SUEZ Communities Trust provides funding awards through the Landfill Communities Fund. This important source of funding has been available since 1997 and has provided such worthy projects with more than £1.4 billion. We were delighted to be able to offer funding to Chiswick House & Gardens Trust.”

Ends.

Notes to the editor

For information on how to apply for funding from SUEZ Communities Trust call (01934) 524013 or visit www.suezcommunitiestrust.org.uk

SUEZ Communities Trust

SUEZ Communities Trust is an independent funding body set up in 1997 to provide funding through the Landfill Communities Fund. To date SUEZ Communities Trust has supported more than 3,900 projects to a combined value of over £110 million using tax credits donated by SUEZ Recycling and Recovery UK (formerly SITA UK).

SUEZ Communities Trust funds improve vital public recreation facilities such as village halls, community centres, sport, heritage, green spaces and play areas.

Landfill Tax and the Landfill Communities Fund

The Landfill Communities Fund is an innovative tax credit scheme enabling Landfill Operators (LOs) to contribute money to organisations enrolled with the scheme regulator, ENTRUST, as Environmental Bodies (EBs) EBs use this funding for a wide range of community and environmental projects in the vicinity of landfill sites. LOs are able to claim a credit (currently 5.3%) against the landfill tax liability for 90% of the contributions they make.

Since its inception, in 1996, over £1.4 billion has been spent on more than 53,000 projects across the UK. For more information please visit www.entrust.org.uk

For media enquiries about SUEZ Communities Trust please contact our team on 01934 524013 or email

communications@suezcommunitiestrust.org.uk

Chiswick House & Gardens Trust

Chiswick House & Gardens Trust is a registered charity, created jointly by English Heritage and the London Borough of Hounslow. The Trust is dedicated to the protection and enhancement of this outstanding Grade I listed villa and registered Grade I Gardens, which have been enjoyed as a public park since 1929. www.chiswickhouseandgardens.org.uk