£10,000 from the Middle Treworder solar farm has been presented to eight community groups in the Wadebridge area.

Chair of the fund committee and WREN director, Tony Faragher, presented the awards on a surprisingly not wet 16th October, on the Camel Trail overlooking the proposed site of the skateboard park, behind Lidl.

23 organisations from Wadebridge, St Kew, St Mabyn and Egloshayle applied and the fund committee, made up of representatives from the town and parish councils, the landowner and WREN, had a hard task to select the winners. The committee were looking primarily for projects that would benefit children or young people, or people in fuel poverty or at risk of being so, and also to low carbon initiatives and climate change mitigation or adaptation projects.

The top three awards went to the Skateboard and BMX Park project (£5,000), Wadebridge Swimming Club to train more coaches (£2,400) and St Kew Highway Football Club for a ride-on mower to improve the quality of pitches (£1,000). Smaller awards went to Badger Forest School, The Muddy Puddle initiative at Wadebridge Primary Academy, U3A for loud-speakers to aid the hard of hearing, Churches Together Holiday Club and Mothers’ Milk Café to train more peer-supporters to help new mothers with breast-feeding.

The funding comes from a Section 106 agreement with the owners of the solar farm, infrastructure investment fund BBIP, and the land owners, Andrew, Shaun and Oliver Hawkey, to provide a community fund to benefit residents of the area around the installation. A further £20,000 is due in April 2015 with more to come in the years after that.

Chair of the fund committee and WREN director, Tony Faragher, said, “It is very pleasing to see that BBIP and the Hawkey family have so promptly honoured their Section 106 commitment to provide the money for this community fund. They provide a great example for other solar and wind developers.”

21st October 2014