News

 Anna and David with the Trust's GREEN APPLE AWARD at the Palace of Westminster

The CET from time to time receives recognition of the valuable work we do, the things that we achieve and the activities we offer. Sometimes these are in the form of testimonials from visitors, of the formal kind from a visiting teacher or celebrity to those from children who have simply had a great time. Sometimes there are recognised awards. All are a reward to all those involved with the Trust, in whatever capacity, and who believe in what we do… and we put some of them on the website.

In May last year BBC’s Countryfile magazine reckoned our Treehouse the number one Treehouse in Britain which was great and added to the accolades the Treehouse has acquired. But the Treehouse is only part of what we do so the Green Apple Award was all the more pleasing. Originally we had wanted to submit the Treehouse project for the Green Apple Award a couple of years ago. By last year the Treehouse wasn’t so new so the entry was all about the environmental work of the Trust, its education, the practical ‘green’ measures we have taken and included the Treehouse as well.

The Green Apple Awards are national awards presented annually in recognition of companies, councils, and organisations carrying out projects that enhance the environment and the competition is tough in all categories. Categories range from the automotive industry to the health service.

We were delighted to hear in July that we had won an award, but they don’t tell you in which category! Anna and I went up to London in November through the security cordon and into the Houses of Parliament for the award ceremony. Now we didn’t know which category we had one in so as the presentation went on we were on tenter-hooks. ‘Charity’ came and went so did ‘Community’ and ‘Conservation’, still not us. Finally, and it gives us particular pleasure as it is what we are fundamentally about, came ‘Education’. We didn’t win gold but silver is still pretty good and a lot better than bronze let alone nothing at all!

Before the makeover                                                                 .....and after!!

Transformations at the Out of Town Centre!

Thanks to the generosity of John Lewis in Southampton and the hard work of many of their ‘Partners’ the Out of town Centre has had a complete makeover.

They have provided us with layer upon layer of new things! New mattress covers and pillow protectors (and even some new mattresses). New duvets and pillows. New duvet covers bottom sheets and pillow cases. That’s the bedding, but there’s more. There are new curtains in the bedrooms, new seat cushions and covers in the conservatory and then there’s the redecorating…

I now know what a ‘feature wall’ is and how you can be bold when you know what you are doing, which I don’t. Professional design and volunteer effort have brought about such a change. Bold, bright and designed are three words which spring immediately to mind. It is such a boost to have a revitalised OTC at a time when we otherwise could not afford to do anything and we even have new pictures in the rooms. The decorating was completed at the end of March and our visitors have already commented most favourably on the changes.

New bedding and décor are not the only changes at the OTC. With the help of a grant from the National Park Sustainable Development Fund we have been able to resuscitate and replace our solar hot water heating and replace a lot of the expensive electric space heating with air to air heat pumps. The solar water heating has already saved us over £100 in electricity costs and the air to air heat pumps (which extract energy from the atmosphere outside to release as heat inside the building) should run on half the electricity of our old electrical heating. We even have a working solar heating kit (like a model of the one in the centre) which visiting groups can assemble and see how it raises the water temperature!

Brighter, cleaner, ‘greener’ and cheaper as well as more comfortable that’s the new Out of Town Centre. Oh and don’t forget that although the Centre is used by schools most weeks of the year it is available at weekends and sometimes in the school holidays for family and youth groups. What better way of seeing all the improvements!