Ørsted’s East Coast Community Fund Awards Fifth Round of Grants
The East Coast Community Fund is part of the community engagement programme for Ørsted’s Hornsea Project One and Race Bank offshore wind farms. Each year, until 2037, approximately £390,000 will be available from the main fund to support a wide range of community and environmental projects.
An additional £75,000 per year is ring-fenced for a skills fund, designed to support a range of educational and training initiatives.
The community groups will each receive a share of the windfall, which is available every six months through an open application process.
The successful groups from the fifth round are:
Chris Taylor, General Manager at Your Place said: “We are delighted to receive a grant of £18,407 from the East Coast Community Fund for our Garden Buddy Scheme. This money will be used for staff costs, equipment and running costs of the project for the next two years. The project enables people who would not otherwise be able to cope with gardening tasks to be ‘buddied’ with more able volunteers who can befriend, support and encourage them to become a valuable and useful part of our volunteer team. Thank you so much, this money will make a great difference in the lives of many people.”
The Fund was launched by Ørsted in December 2016 and has so far donated well over £900,000 to more than 80 projects. In total, over the twenty years, up to £9.3 million will be made available for community and environmental projects in coastal areas of Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and North Norfolk.
There are two application rounds each year for groups to apply to, and the next closing date is 14 August 2019.
Imran Nawaz, Stakeholder Advisor at Ørsted, said: “We’re building the biggest offshore wind farms in the world of the East Coast of the UK, and so it’s our pleasure to be able to offer this fund for communities up and down the coast that have welcomed us and our operations. It is especially pleasing to see such a wide range of organisations win a share of the fund and I have no doubt they will make a real difference in the communities in which they are based.”
The Fund is being administered by national charity GrantScape. For further details of how you can apply to the next round, please visit GrantScape’s website www.grantscape.org.uk or call 01908 247634.
ENDS
Editors’ Notes:
Media contacts
Liz Payne – GrantScape: 01282 543775 or 07963 987653 liz.payne@grantscape.org.uk
Juliette Sanders – Ørsted: +44 (0)7876 866 284 julsa@orsted.com
About Ørsted
The Ørsted vision is a world that runs entirely on green energy. Ørsted develops, constructs and operates offshore wind farms, bioenergy plants and innovative waste-to-energy solutions and provides smart energy products to its customers. Headquartered in Denmark, Ørsted employs 5,600 people, including over 900 in the UK. For more information on Ørsted, visit orsted.co.uk or follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter.
About GrantScape
GrantScape is a grant-making charity committed to enhancing the environment and strengthening local communities through its grant programmes. GrantScape’s experience stretches back to 1997 and it has awarded grants totalling over £80 million to deserving projects over this time.
GrantScape manages a range of community and environmental grant programmes on behalf of corporate and local authority clients. These are tailored to their individual requirements, which is the charity’s speciality. In addition, GrantScape offers a professional project management and grant process review service to groups requiring support with these activities.
For further information, please see www.grantscape.org.uk or follow us @GrantScape1 on Twitter.
About the Hornsea Project One and Race Bank Offshore Windfarms
Ørsted’s Hornsea Project One and Race Bank offshore windfarms are located off the Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and North Norfolk coast. Race Bank was officially opened in 2018, and Hornsea Project One is expected to be completed in 2020, at which point it will become the largest offshore wind farm in the world. Combined, these two wind farms will have a combined capacity of nearly 1.8 gigawatts, making them capable of meeting the electricity needs of more than 1.5 million UK homes.
For further information on Hornsea Project One, please see www.hornseaprojectone.co.uk/en
For further information on Race Bank, please see: https://orsted.co.uk/en/Generating%20energy/Offshore%20wind/Our%20wind%20farms/In%20construction
About the East Coast Community Fund
Ørsted has committed to a Community Fund worth approximately £465,000 each year for 20 years. £75,000 of the Fund each year is ring-fenced for a ‘Skills Fund’.
The Fund supports community and environmental projects along the Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and the North Norfolk coasts (as far as Wells-next-the-Sea), within a defined area. It is split equally between two annual funding rounds. There are two levels of grants available:
Applications to the Fund are made using an online application system via the GrantScape website www.grantscape.org.uk