Speaking last week (26 May) as the Trust celebrated its 19th year of funding community and environmental projects at a luncheon in the House of Lords, Oswald Dodds said that the past 12 months had been ‘transformative’ for both the Landfill Communities Fund and Veolia Environmental Trust.
Mr Dodds added that the Trust had awarded a total of £3.3 million to 105 projects across England and Wales throughout 2015/16 – whilst 166 projects which had received money from the Trust had reached a conclusion.
In his address, Mr Dodds acknowledged that the Trust had sought to improve its access to funding for projects, following ‘improvements’ to the Fund carried out by the Treasury to reduce unspent funds.
He added that at the end of the 2015/16 financial year, only £31,000 in uncommitted funding had remained in the Trust’s bank account – which he described as a “real success story and testament to our efforts to ensure that LCF monies are spent as soon as possible”.
Funding
However, he warned that funding for future projects could also be harder to come by, adding: “We found it increasingly difficult to support as many projects as we would have liked to as the amount of money we had to award grants from is nearly half of what it was last year. With the number of applications increasing, only a quarter of fully compliant projects received funding, whereas last year it was over a third.
“The recent cut in the diversion rate represents a significant reduction in the amount of money available to projects which is compounded by the fall in funding due to the landfill tax’s ongoing effectiveness in reducing the amount of waste going to landfill.”
Mr Dodds also noted that the Veolia Environmental Trust had gone through its own phase of restructuring, with the dissolution of regional panels to consider funding requests.
Further changes to the LCF were outlined by the Treasury in its Spring Budget in March (see letsrecycle.com story), which Mr Dodds, said are likely to have an impact in future years.
He said: “We and the rest of the sector have since worked with government, HMRC and ENTRUST to identify and discuss the possible impacts these changes would have on the LCF and the wider UK funding landscape.”
Awards
During the event, the Veolia Environmental Trust presented awards to four projects that the organisation and its members felt had best transformed the landscape, the environment and amenities.
These included an award for Transforming Public Space, awarded to a project to create an outdoor community space at Cody Dock, Newham in East London, led by the Gasworks Dock Partnership. Simon Myers, chief executive of the Partnership collected the award, noting that the project had helped to ‘increase diversity of plants and provide a habitat for new and existing wildlife’.
An accolade for Transforming the Environment was also handed to the Lancashire Wildlife Trust, for a volunteer project to transform the River Darwen Parkway Local Nature Reserve near Blackburn, which was received by Rebecca Whitcombe of the Lancashire Wildlife Trust.
A project in the village of Ellistown, Leicestershire was recognised for its work in Transforming Sport, following the development of a multi-use games area in the village, which was received by Leicestershire county councillor James Fox, and local resident Chloe Powell.
Debbie Reynolds, countryside officer at the Kentish Stour Countryside Partnership’s accepted the award for Transforming Play for a project to develop a woodland play area at Loudon Wood – which had transformed a 2.5 acre ancient woodland at the heart of a housing estate.
The Three Trees Community Centre in Solihull, which was refurbished using money provided by the Trust was also recognised for Transforming Community Buildings, with the centre’s chair Neil Roberts collecting the award.
The Landfill Communities Fund was introduced alongside the Landfill Tax in 1996 and allows landfill site operators to claim a credit against their landfill tax liability for voluntary contributions made directly to environmental bodies. Throughout its lifetime, the Veolia Environmental Trust has delivered around £66 million in funding to 2030 projects through the Fund.
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