Halton Borough Council has announced grants totalling nearly £650,000 which will be used to fund a new community café and the continuation of a civic pride initiative run by local war veterans.

The funding boosts are the latest in a long line of significant grants made possible by the Viridor-backed Environmental Fund. The fund was set up by Halton Borough Council (which is also responsible for determining how the fund is allocated) and paid into each year by Viridor, which operates the energy recovery facility (ERF) in Runcorn, with nearly £1 million donated in 2023/24.

The fund was established in 2015 and has to date seen grants totalling nearly £7 million – which have all been solely funded by the ERF’s operations. These grants have gone to a variety of community schemes across the local area. The largest share of the latest funding agreed will see £612,500 used over seven years to fund the construction of a new permanent café at the popular Pickerings Pasture Local Nature Reserve.

Pickerings Pasture is one of the council’s busiest public parks but currently only has temporary facilities on site which have been in place for more than 30 years, are volunteer run and are in a poor state of repair.

This new fund will enable the construction of a new permanent café, run on behalf of the Council on a franchise basis – providing much needed refreshments and welfare facilities to visitors and creating a new income stream for the Council.

Cllr Mike Wharton, Leader of Halton Borough Council, added: “We know there’s huge public demand for better facilities at Pickerings Pasture and the proposed new café will enable our visitors to get so much more out of the time they spend there. The space we’ll create will feel modern, clean and safe, as well as creating local employment opportunities.”

The second scheme to receive a financial boost from the Viridor-funded grant scheme is the Veteran’s Environmental Campaign, which will receive £120,000 over three years to support its environmental maintenance, landscaping and clearing works across the borough.

With the new funding in place, this initiative will be able to continue to show how veterans are playing a key role in helping to promote civic pride, while encouraging and supporting volunteer groups to become involved in community clean-up activities.

Darren Bolton, Plant Manager at Viridor Runcorn’s ERF, commented: “Viridor is extremely proud to see funding that comes wholly from Viridor Runcorn has been allocated via Halton Borough Council to these two very worthwhile community initiatives. They will both contribute in a significant way to improving the local environment in ways that will make a real difference to local people. We’re proud to be playing an active part in this community and we look forward to seeing these projects progressing. We also look forward to hearing news of further projects being supported by our Environmental Fund in 2025.”

Viridor announced earlier this year that it has paid a further £985,449 into the Halton Borough Council Environmental Fund during 2023/24, taking the total amount of funding provided by the ERF via this fund to nearly £7 million in just under 10 years. This latest tranche of funding will now be allocated by Halton Borough Council to support community initiatives and local groups.

The Environmental Fund is just one way in which Viridor invests in the communities within which it operates, with its We Share Community Fund representing further annual grants totalling up to £300,000 nationally for projects promoting community, involvement, education and sustainability.

For more information on Viridor’s work in Runcorn, please see here: https://www.viridor.co.uk/energy/energy-recovery-facilities/runcorn-erf/