Sleaford REP Community Liason Panel members Councillor’s Keith Dolby and Richard Wright were present at Eslaforde Park to witness the benefits of the Panel's latest local pledge.
The £2,000 donation has enabled the local Junior Football Club to purchase a set of new portable goal’s which had become essential to maintain the continued progression within grassroots football.
Junior Club Chairman, Jason Butler expressed his gratitude to the Groups pledge and commented,
“We are perhaps more fortunate than some other local teams, however the ever expanding guidelines being introduced by the FA to help our young footballers develop is making it increasingly difficult for us to find the necessary funds and space to provide so many differant sized pitches and goals.”
“As a club, we were faced with the real possibility of losing some of our teams and indeed those players from the local community. We have so many volunteers who invest their own time and effort, gaining qualifications and the like, to oversee the development of these keen footballers. Needless to say it would have been a sad state of affairs if these teams were forced to fold or move away.”
“This wonderful donation has allowed Sleaford Town Junior Club to purchase a set of new portable goals so that we can pitch share a number of our Grassroots teams and encourage the growth of further teams for many years to come.”
Sleaford Town Junior Football Club is an FA Charter Standard Community Club. For more information please email [email protected] or visit the clubs website at www.sleafordtownfc.co.uk
Other community groups are being urged by the Panel to come forward and apply for the annual £40,000 funding (for the next two years) which is being provided by Sleaford REP and administered by the Sleaford REP Community Liaison Panel. Funding applications can range from up to £1,000 or £1,001 - £20,000 for groups and organisations in either Sleaford Town Parish or Kirkby-La-Thorpe Parish. For more information about Sleaford REP Community Liaison Panel and to apply for funding please visit the dedicated Panel page on the Sleaford REP website – www.sleafordrep.co.uk
Pictured are Sleaford Town Junior FC Under 13 A’s and B’s their respective managers, Ian Barnshaw and David O’Neil, Club Chairman Jason Butler, together with local councillors Keith Dolby and Richard Wright.
Mike Harrison, Sleaford REP Communications Manager reports on the ongoing response to the fire at a straw storage site near Sleaford:
"We are continuing with the removal of straw not effected by the fire and this is likely to take at least another 24hours. The straw on fire is under control and continues to be monitored as it is left to burn out, as is procedure and is recommended by the emergency services.
Some concerns have been raised in local press regarding the amount of straw and planning permission. As NKDC have said, no amount of planning permission would have prevented this arson attack. This was a purely criminal act which we fully condemn.
The site is an agricultural zone and it is being operated on the basis that this is an agricultural function and therefore permitted development. Some opinions have been expressed that the site designation should be changed to industrial, and while we dispute this, we have been actively in discussions recently with NKDC to clarify this. However, at no point have concerns been raised about the storage sites with Sleaford REP directly.
We wish to reassure local people that we are responsible neighbours and we will be operating a programme of works to clean up debris straw along local roads in addition to our ongoing cleaning works we operate as standard. Sleaford REP is a local business that supports a number of jobs in Sleaford and Lincolnshire more widely. It brings revenue to the local economy each year and therefore we view this as an attack on a local business. Work now continues with the aftermath of the fire and investigations are ongoing."
A fire broke out yesterday around 5.30pm at our straw storage site near the A15. This followed reports of suspicious activity in the area. On site were 26,000 bales of
which approximately 50% had been engulfed by the fire which equates to approx. 8000 te. Investigations have begun into the cause of the blaze.
Mike Harrison, Sleaford REP Communications Manager said:
‘This is a very serious incident and the Police are looking into the possibility of criminal involvement. The site is a one of a number of external storage sites we use for our straw and we have emergency measures which are contained in a detailed Project Management Plan for all strategic storage sites.
Initial findings show that the appropriate procedures were enacted in this instance. On arrival, the fire and rescue services concluded that once straw not effected by the fire were removed, the most appropriate action was to simply control the burn and limit damage to persons in attendance. Fires breaks are in place and preservation of remaining stock was taken care of by transporting it to the Plant.
The site itself has a gate and shrub fencing to the side of the A15 but is open to the rear of the site, which leads directly to the Greylees estate. Our storage sites are a key part of our operations we are reviewing our security measures and are currently in the process of looking additional security options to monitor all strategic sites, inclusive of differing options including CCTV.
I wish to reassure the public we are doing all we can to ensure this doesn't happen again and are working closely with the emergency services to control the incident and learn any lessons which are concluded.
The plant remains fully operational, and has not suffered any interruption. More importantly though is that no one has been injured.’
Glennmont Partners, the owners of the 38MW straw-burn Sleaford Renewable Energy Plant in Lincolnshire, announces that the plant has commenced commercial operation.
The Sleaford plant was built by a consortium of Burmeister & Wain Scandinavian Contractor A/S and Burmeister and Wain Energy A/S, and has been built to perform to the highest environmental standard. Construction of the plant started in May 2012.
Managed by Eco2 Limited on behalf of Glennmont Partners, the plant will generate enough renewable electricity to power 65,000 homes as well as provide free heat to Sleaford’s public swimming pool, the indoor bowling centre, the town’s football club, William Alvey Primary School, and North Kesteven District Council’s office in the town.
The renewable energy plant employs 30 people onsite and is supporting jobs in local agriculture as the straw, that is the plant’s fuel source, is being secured mainly from farms within a 30 mile radius of Sleaford.
Working closely with North Kesteven Council, Sleaford Town Council, Kirkby-la-Thorpe Parish Council, Glennmont will continue to support the delivery and distribution of the £285,000 of community funding that is delivered through the Sleaford REP Community Liaison Panel. The Panel was established in January 2013. Glennmont is also supporting other initiatives that will benefit the local area, including the Sustainability and Public Art Funds, and an engineering apprenticeship scheme.
Joost Bergsma, Managing Partner of Glennmont, said: “Sleaford is a landmark deal not only for Glennmont but for the UK biomass industry as a whole. It’s also a significant milestone for the town. Glennmont appreciates the efforts and support of everyone involved in the development and construction of the project, not least the teams at Eco2 and the Burmeister & Wain Consortium, as well as the local community.”
For further information, please visit: www.glennmont.com or www.sleafordrep.co.uk
or contact: Paul Taylor - 020 3170 8465 / [email protected]
Taylor Keogh Communications
Notes to Editors:
Glennmont Partners is one of Europe’s largest fund managers focusing exclusively on investment in clean energy infrastructure. It raises long-term capital to invest in alternative power generation projects, such as wind farms, biomass power stations, solar parks and small-scale hydro power plants. Its carefully selected, risk managed investments deliver sustained performance and predictable returns over periods of 10 years or more. Formerly BNP Paribas Clean Energy Partners, the team has been working together since 2007, and has established a reputation for making intelligent, long-term investments that deliver absolute returns.
The Plant is fully constructed but at present there are some issues which need to be resolved before the Plant is handed over and becomes fully operational. This process has taken longer than anticipated but we do not foresee this taking too much longer. Once the handover has been completed, the Plant will begin operations and simultaneously the domestic heating system will also go live.
Sleaford REP Community Liaison Panel awarded a grant to a charity working in Sleaford to help vulnerable families. The Preparation Course of volunteers funded by the Panel commenced on May 12th and was completed during 14th July 2014.
The 40 hour course covered the following topics:-
The role of a Home-Start volunteer: values and attitudes, family life – parents and children, family life - stress factors, communication skills, community support networks, child development, safeguarding, confidentiality, commitment, boundaries and support, personal safety, home visiting and the mechanics of Home-Start and endings.
Since the beginning of June, 17 Sleaford families have been referred for our support, 12 of the referrals have been for home visiting and staff support, 1 family did not take up our offer and the remainder attended our family Group. The families in Sleaford have been referred for a variety of reasons including depression, isolation, domestic abuse, alcohol misuse, new baby in the family, number of children under the age of 5 years.
We have recently requested feedback from the families that we are currently supporting and below is a sample of their comments:-
What do you like about Home-Start?
How do you think we can improve the support we offer?
How do you think Home-Start helped?
A spokesperson for HomeStart said: "The funding from the Community Liaison Panel has played a very important part in the delivery of our service in Sleaford Town and we thank you very much for your grant."
Eco2, the developers of the Sleaford Renewable Energy Plant, received the Sustainability Award at the Renewable Energy Association’s (REA’s) British Renewable Energy Awards 2014, held at The Savoy, in London, on Thursday 12th June.
Chief executive officer David Williams said:
“I am delighted to accept this award which recognises our pioneering approach to renewable energy generation.
“Biomass from straw is one of the few forms of energy that uses a genuine unused fuel as its feedstock to provide low-carbon and predictable energy.
“It’s fantastic that the industry values our contribution to the renewable sector and recognises our commitment to sourcing sustainable domestic fuel for power generation.”
He added: “The REA Awards is one of the most prestigious and well respected events in the renewables sector, so this is a huge honour.”
Mike Harrison, Sleaford REP Communications Manager provides a brief update as to the construction of the Plant.
‘The Plant is fully constructed with much of the remaining auxiliary works, such as landscaping, due to be completed shortly. However, during the commissioning of the power station there have been some technical issues with the generator which are being solved. Final handover for the Sleaford REP is now expected to occur in July as per the original construction schedule.’
The Sleaford REP Community Liaison Panel recently awarded local charity Beyond the Blues £1,350 funding towards workshop facilities to support local mental health work.
Commenting on the new Craft Shed and workshop facilities, Beyond the Blues' Debbie Jones said:
'The shed is open to all mental health support groups who choose to use it within their group sessions.
After a superb job from Leasingham Manor farm shop the shed was erected in a very tight space at the rear of the Sleaford Foyer. Every inch of ground was used to lay our grand new workspace. It has been kitted out with locked cupboards where we store a few power and hand tools. Benches run the length of the shed for us to work on. Gardening equipment is also stored there.
It has taken a while to get the shed functional and safe to use. We had to follow the guidelines of the Foyer and have the correct risk assessments in place. Rules and instructions wrote. Safety equipment bought. By the end of June we were able to hold an open day where use of the shed/tools were explained to everyone followed by a social get together with a BBQ.
We aim to have different projects running. People are invited to bring in their own work or join in with encouragement and instruction group projects, IE bird table.
We are always looking for voluntary help and would appreciate any help that anyone could offer.
We stay in touch with Arts NK and hope in the future we can afford to gain some expertise through them by paying for a wood work course to benefit all.
The work shop is going to be a huge asset to all especially when the weather changes and the use of the garden is limited. New techniques and skills will be gained along with a sense of team work, confidence and achievement.'
The Sleaford REP Community Liaison Panel held their latest quarterly meeting this week at the Plant. The Panel is a body that was established to administer the £280,000 of funding agreed between Sleaford REP and NKDC in a Well-Being Agreement. Representatives from NKDC, Sleaford Town Council, Kirkby la Thorpe Parish, and Eco2 Lincs make up the voting members of the Panel. A key role of the Panel is to administer a three year £120,000 community fund shared equally between Sleaford Town and Kirkby la Thorpe Parish. The Fund is for community groups, organisations, and schools to apply for up to £20,000 in a given year.
The onsite meeting marked the first year of the Panel which has administered:
£10,000 for Kirkby la Thorpe Primary School for new interactive whiteboards
£20,000 for two apprenticeships
£20,000 to Sleaford organisations as part of the Community Fund
£50,000 of commissioned piece of sculptured art to be displayed at the entrance of the Plant
Please visit the Sleaford REP Community Liaison Panel page on this website for information on the next round of funding and how to apply.