In partnership with Sandwell Early Years, Veolia Environmental Trust and Enovert Community Trust Confederation of Bangladeshi Organisations (CBO) Ltd is developing a new modular building – Learning Hub which will house the new Green Garden Community Nursery. Construction work will commence in April 2018.
This new project aims to create one stop shop and community hub at the heart of the Greets Green and West Bromwich.
The project will cost in the region of £150,000. The bulk of the funding is coming through the Landfill Communities Fund. This lets landfill owners hold onto part of their landfill tax bill and distribute it to community and environmental projects in areas where they operate.
The Veolia Environmental Trust have awarded £75,000 through the fund and Enovert Community Trust £40,000. The remaining £35,000 will be funded by Sandwell Early Years – Capital Grant funding.
In 2011 CBO took over the management of Greets Green Resource Centre (GGRC) a former housing office from Sandwell MBC and transformed the building into modern and vibrant community facilities. Over 6000 people benefits from the Greets Green Resource Centre annually on a wide range of activities including advice (in 2017 our advice team secured £1.3m of financial welfare benefit gains for local residents), health and wellbeing activities, sports and recreational activities, and other community development initiatives.
In 2017 CBO completed the development of Greets Green Play area on the rear of Greets Green Resource Centre consisting of; a Multi-use Games Area (MUGA), a children’s play area and a community garden.
Shabud Ullah, Manager said:
We are very delighted and grateful to our funders and partners Sandwell MBC, Veolia Environmental Trust and Enovert Community Trust for funding this unique project which will be first of a kind in the area. Greets Green Learning Hub will attract and benefit wider community. We have been planning this project over the last 2 years and engaged key partners, stakeholders, local residents and grass roots organisations/groups who will be empowered to play pivotal role in overseeing the management and delivery of the project.
The Landfill Communities Fund (LCF) is a tax credit scheme enabling Landfill Operators (LOs) to contribute money to organisations enrolled with ENTRUST as Environmental Bodies (EBs). They 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 their landfill tax liability for 90% of the contributions they make. Since its inception in 1996, over £1.3bn billion has been spent on more than 51,000 projects across the UK. For further information, please visit www.entrust.org.uk or see HMRC’s general guide to Landfill Tax.
The Veolia Environmental Trust has been supporting community and environmental projects through the Landfill Communities Fund for 20 years. Since we were established in 1997, Veolia has supported us with contributions totalling over £75 million, enabling 2,218 projects to successfully complete. These have included ones to repair woodland footpaths, improve community halls and the install skateparks and playgrounds. For more information, or to find out how to apply for funding, visit our website www.veoliatrust.org.
