Summerfield Charitable Trust has awarded a grant of more than £900,000 towards the pioneering community ownership of Stroud’s Heavens Valley, which has inspired an unprecedented level of public support and donations, writes Sue Fenton.
The £911,000 grant will be used to repay loans and manage the iconic site for the benefit of the community and nature. The Heavens Valley will soon be entirely in community ownership after the Heavens Valley Community Benefit Society was awarded the game-changing grant from the Gloucestershire-based charitable trust.
The two local well-wishers who lent the money to support the purchase are in the process of being repaid, meaning the entire 102 acres will be fully owned by the community.
The remainder of the grant, after the loans have been repaid, has been ring-fenced for specific projects that have been agreed between the Trust and the Heavens Valley Community Benefit Society. These include formulating a plan to introduce conservation grazing, undertake tree safety measures and ecological surveys. Some of the money will pay for two part-time staff to handle community outreach and, as part of the land management team, to coordinate volunteers.
Roger Mortlock, a Trustee with the Summerfield Charitable Trust, commented: “Since 1989 the Trust has given over £7million to a vast range of charitable causes in Gloucestershire, making a hugely significant, lasting impact on the county. This is our largest environmental grant, awarded to a truly inspiring and innovative purchase of land for people and nature. All Trustees have been hugely impressed by what the Heavens Valley campaign has already achieved. It is a unique project, based upon outstanding grass-roots support that has secured a vital community asset for the future for the people of Stroud and Gloucestershire.”
Karen Thomas, HVCBS co-ordinator, said: “It’s hard to express how delighted we are to receive this money. We’d been talking to the Trust for some time, and, after a series of meetings, it was clear that the Heavens Valley campaign aligned very closely with the ethos of the Trust to invest in innovative, game-changing projects in the county, especially those which benefit nature.
“As the grant has been awarded for specific projects, the Heavens Valley CBS will continue to fundraise as before, to ensure there is always money available to spend on routine maintenance and ongoing land management.”
Karen added: “We are so grateful to everyone who bought shares, made donations and organised or attended fundraising events. We really couldn’t have bought the land in the first place without them, and it was the huge level of public engagement that brought us to the attention of the Summerfield Charitable Trust and made this wonderful grant possible.
“But a site of this size requires ongoing expenditure if we are to meet our commitments of nature recovery and public accessibility in perpetuity, so every donation, however small, will continue to be vitally important.
“The grant has now moved us from an action group to a significant community organisation and we are actively recruiting new directors, who will be voted for at our AGM on September 24. We’ll be sending out further information about this shortly but if, in the meantime, you would like more information, specifically about how to apply to become a director, please email info@heavensvalley.org.uk.”
There will be public consultation to establish what projects residents would most like to see on the land.
Residents and supporters are invited to attend a celebration picnic in the valley on Sunday September 14, from 3pm to 5pm.
