Chiswick House Education Centre Gets Funding Boost

Money from landfill tax avoidance scheme being given to Trust

Chiswick House and Gardens Trust is to be given a significant cash grant from a fund used by a landfill operator to reduce their tax bill.

£43,558.00 is being given from the SUEZ Communities Trust to help upgrade the education and volunteer Centre in the gardens. It is part of the Landfill Communities Fund which is a tax credit scheme enabling landfill operators to contribute money to organisations enrolled with the scheme regulator, ENTRUST, as Environmental Bodies. The landfill operators are able to claim a credit (currently 5.3%) against the landfill tax liability for 90% of the contributions they make.

SUEZ Communities Trust was set up by SITA Ltd which operates a significant number of landfill and waste processing sites including one at Transport Avenue in Brentford.

Chiswick House and Gardens Trust wishes to restore and improve the existing education and volunteer centre to make the building safe and provide a better resource for our local community. At present, they say the rooms are tired, and there are areas of damp and water ingress. The Trust proposes to carry out vital repairs and improve the facilities with provision of a sink and better storage, to enable them to welcome more primary and secondary school age children, offer them a programme that includes relevant educational stimuli, and support a broader range of activities both indoors and outdoors on the site.

The current location adjacent to the kitchen garden will encourage use of the equipment, while the Trust's research has emphasised the need for better provision of educational facilities which are used by both their volunteer corpus of 150 and by their annual education visitors who number more than 4000 children and adults. Their volunteers and gardening team and the programmes they run have won numerous awards, including being named the top Heritage Park, winning the RHS it’s our neighbourhood award, winning the our community 50th anniversary category and being awarded gold for the Gardens generally and the kitchen garden in particular at London in Bloom 2017.

Clare O’Brien, Chiswick House and Gardens Trust director said, “The education and volunteer centre at Chiswick House and Gardens is a much-used and vital space for our loyal volunteers, archivists and school groups. It’s current state of dilapidation is depressing, unsightly and ultimately will lead to the building’s ruin. We are delighted and grateful that Suez Communities Trust is funding this much-needed refurbishment to make the building sound. The many users will be uplifted by these improvements.”

Marek Gordon, Chairman of SUEZ Communities Trust added “SUEZ Communities Trust provides funding awards through the Landfill Communities Fund. This important source of funding has been available since 1997 and has provided such worthy projects with more than £1.4 billion. We were delighted to be able to offer funding to Chiswick House & Gardens Trust.”

March 23, 2018