Two Eccleshall groups handed a share of £55,000 windfall from Central England Co-operative
Posted by nathan lloyd | Published: 11/08/2016
Two groups in Eccleshall are celebrating after being handed over £5,000 from Central England Co-operative’s Community Dividend Fund.
Eccleshall Football Club and Norton Bridge Family Area both received a share of the money, with a total of £55,000 handed out to 35 good causes across 16 counties.
The Norton Bridge Family Area scheme was awarded £3,000 as part of an ambitious project to create a new family area for the community.
The new scheme will incorporate a new play area and also will be designed to support parents with disabled children.
Councillor Jeremy Pert said at the time of the award: “With the help of this money and the work of volunteers, local councillors and fundraisers, the residents of Norton Bridge will be able to see the family area that
they so desperately have wanted in their community for the past 20 or 30 years.
“It is being designed to suit all the families in the local area and everyone is so excited about seeing the family area taking shape, thanks to the support of the Central England Co-operative.”
Eccleshall Football Club will use £2,478 to help transform and refurbish its clubhouse.
It is hoped that the work will result in an influx in new members and people joining the football club.
Grants of between £100 and £5,000 are handed out every three months to a wide range of applicants.
The fund guarantees that at least one per cent of the Society’s trading profit is reinvested in local communities in a bid to help projects to thrive across its trading area of 16 counties from the Midlands to the east coast.
Martyn Cheatle, Chief Executive of Central England Co-operative, said: “I would like to urge all of our members to get in touch and put forward a community cause close to their heart for the Community Dividend scheme.”
People can apply for funding by visiting https://communities.centralengland.coop/ or heading in store to pick up an application form.
Potential applicants have to have been a Central England Co-operative member for six months, the project should be in the trading area of a Central England Co-operative store and all applications will need a referee.
Notes to editors
About Central England Co-operative
Central England Co-operative is one of the largest independent retail co-operative societies in the UK. It is a modern, forward-looking organisation employing over 8,000 staff, with projected gross sales of £958million for 2016/17. The Society recently celebrated being named Leading Co-operative of the Year 2016 by Co-operatives UK. The Society’s principal areas of activity are food, funeral services, and property. Central England Co-operative has more than 430 trading outlets across 16 counties including; West Midlands, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire. The Society has an ambitious food store development programme for 2015/16.
Central England Co-operative is proud of its reputation for ethical business practices and corporate responsibility. It is a member of Business in the Community, the membership organisation that stands for responsible business, and has also won many business awards for excellence. The Society supports a number of charities including Newlife Foundation for Disabled Children and invests a percentage of its trading profit into local communities.
For more information visit http://www.centralengland.coop follo,w Central England Co-operative on Twitter: @mycoopfood, and on Facebook: facebook.com/centralenglandcooperative
Rob Smyth / Jo Baldock at Central England Co-operative on 01543 414140
Email –publicrelations@centralengland.coop