Wates Living Space awards £44,000 through Wates Giving to Southways Riverbank Community Cafe

9 February, 2010

The Riverbank Cafe and Market Garden, a not for profit social enterprise set up by local residents to benefit the local community, has been awarded over £44,000 through Wates Giving, a charitable programme run by the Wates family, owners of the Wates Group.

Charlie Wates, one of the fourth generation of family owners of the Wates Group presented the cheque to residents of Southways Housing Group last week.

The Market Garden will help the local community by assisting them to learn to grow their own produce and help return the estate to its former glory as a garden estate. The cafe will then serve quality food sourced and cooked locally and offer basic training to residents in either area of growing, cooking and customer service skills.

Wates Living Space, the affordable housing division of the Wates Group is also refurbishing a derelict shop on Merseybank for the use of the Riverbank Café.

June Stenson from the Market Garden said “Wates support from day one has been essential. The funding received will enable us to appoint a co-ordinator / project manager for a period of two years to finally push the project to success. The unending support from Wates and their employees went a long way .With the previous site renovation and refurbishment of site now we would have hit major problems with out Wates help and look forward to their support in the future.

Karen Mitchell, Chief Executive of Southway Housing Trust, said: "This is a great local project that offers something new and exciting to people living in this area.  We are really pleased to be able to get involved in providing support where we can to assist the project in achieving their objectives.  We also recognise what a significant contribution Wates, as one of our main contractors, have made to support the future success of Riverbank and we are extremely pleased to see this donation being made within our area, made to a project that will make a real difference."

Jim Duffy from Wates Living Space added, “Living Space is commitment to making a real difference to the communities where we work, and we hope this contribution from Wates Giving will help push this fantastic project forward.”

 To download this press release as a PDF click here

Categories: refurbishment, regeneration, affordable housing, people, north west

Tags: Wates Giving