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History
The
Trust was originally called the Cleanaway Mardyke Trust and was established
in September 1997 and officially launched in
April 1998. In 2006 Cleanaway were taken over by Veolia Environmental
Services, and to reflect this change the Trust changed its name, firstly
to the Veolia ES Cleanaway Mardyke Trust, and then in September 2010
simply to The Veolia Mardyke Trust. By then the Trust had received nearly £5million
in funding from Veolia ES (UK) Ltd. or its predecessor Cleanaway Ltd
, and had funded around 250 separate projects, ranging in size from under £500
to over £250,000. The Trust works closely with Thurrock Council
and with local organisations such as the South Ockendon Community Forum,
the Thurrock Play Network and others, and tries to take an active part
in the local community it serves.
Trustees
The Trust has up
to seven trustees.
The Chair, Charlie Curtis, lives in South Ockendon and is a local councillor;
he is also a governor of The Ockendon School, and involved in various
local organisations.
One trustee is nominated by Thurrock Council: Barrie Lawrence, also a
resident of and former councillor for South Ockendon.
One trustee is nominated by Veolia ES (UK) Ltd.: Doug Benjafield, a former
Director of Cleanaway, who originally helped to establish the Trust in
1997.
Apart from the two “nominated trustees” all the trustees,
including the Chair, are elected by other trustees and serve a four-year
term of office. When a vacancy needs to be filled, the trust usually
invites local organisations to suggest possible names – the last
time over a dozen local people volunteered, and the Trust went through
a selection process to try to ensure that the new trustee brought in
skills and experience that would be useful in helping the Trust to reach
its decisions. Between them, existing trustees have close links with
wildlife groups, church groups, schools, the Environment Agency, and
local voluntary organisations; four of the trustees live in South Ockendon
so have an excellent knowledge of the local area and good contacts with
the community.
If a project is put forward by a group that a trustee has a connection
with, then that trustee declares an interest before the start of the
discussion on that project and takes no part in the discussion on it;
these interests are recorded in the Trust’s minutes. Trustees also
keep on register all their interests in other organisations to ensure
that there is no conflict of interest in their role as trustees.
Trustees are entirely voluntary and unpaid.
Approach
The Trust recognises
that it can be very difficult and time consuming for local groups to
take on major projects, so tries to make the funding side of it as
easy as possible. The Trust is flexible in allowing groups to apply
for funding in stages and in allowing groups adequate time to complete
the projects.
The Trust is always willing to visit groups to discuss possible projects,
and to help groups find other sources of funding.
The Trust does not spend money on glossy annual reports as it found that
local people often didn’t look at them; instead, it takes part
in local fetes, and will from time to time run special events to encourage
new applicants – in November 2009 it jointly, with the other Veolia
Trusts in South Essex, ran some workshops for groups in South Essex.
The Trust is always willing to listen to ideas for local projects to
see if it can help in any way.
The Trust also works closely with other local organisations and local
councillors to try to develop major and innovative schemes that can use
Trust funding to help lever in funds from other sources such as the lottery.
The Trust is a member of the Thurrock Play Partnership that has produced
a new play strategy for Thurrock, and works in partnership with many
local and national organisations.
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