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Local companies support community garden
Local companies support community garden

Thanks to the support of two local companies, local residents and school pupils will be able to enjoy a brand­­ new classroom and activity room at the WestRaven Community Garden at Westwood.

Burmor Construction supplied the concrete base for the new timber building, while employees from Mastercard painted the inside and outside of the room as part of their community volunteering commitment.

The WestRaven Community Garden is part of the WestRaven Big Local project, a resident led initiative funded by the Lottery and supported by CKH, to transform the local area and provide community amenities, such as the garden and Café.

The garden is regularly used by local groups including nurseries, schools and environmental charities and the classroom will provide an additional learning space that can be used all year round regardless of weather conditions. 

Burmor Construction have recently completed building 16 affordable homes near the garden for Peterborough’s largest housing association Cross Keys Homes (CKH), along with refurbishment of CKH’s Hampton Court shopping centre and the refurbishment of the local basketball courts.

Scott Broadbent, Quantity Surveyor with Burmor, said “Our directors are keen on supporting the local communities in which we work wherever possible. We have helped the garden in a numbers of ways – with pallets and the slabs we took up during the work on the shopping centre for instance. When we heard about this classroom and how it will enable the garden to offer all weather educational and recreational activities we jumped at the chance to provide the labour to help.”

Meanwhile, the volunteers from Mastercard are no strangers to helping the community, with the local Peterborough office having won the company’s internal Force for Good award for outstanding volunteering efforts last year. Volunteer, Daniela Scimeca, said “We are really lucky that our company allows us to take time out of the office to support local good causes. It is brilliant for us to be able to get out of the office and into the community and to do some work that will really have a lasting impact for local people.”

Regular garden volunteer Tony Wood said “We are really grateful to Burmor Construction and Mastercard for doing this work for us.  We would have struggled to complete it ourselves with limited resources and manpower.”

CKH Chief Executive, Claire Higgins said, “A large part of our neighbourhood in Westwood has been transformed and revitalised in recent years thanks to a combination of the dedication of local residents, our own commitment to building communities and our partnership with great local companies, such as Burmor and Mastercard, who have really gone above and beyond. This new classroom is a great new addition to a garden that in such a short space of time has gone from neglected land to a resource highly valued by the whole community. We hope as many people as possible really enjoy using the space for many years to come”