The Tilbury Riverside Project (TRP) is delighted to announce that it has received an award of over £13,500 from Thurrock Thames Gateway Development Corporation’s Community Fund.
The grant was the result of a successful application to rescue TRP from the real possibility of having to cease its activities in the Tilbury area because of a lack of operational funds.
TRP was formed by Peter Hewitt in 1992, to bring about active economic, social and environmental regeneration in and around Tilbury. His plan was to utilise the waterfronts and common land, along with the area’s historical sites and buildings, and encourage people of all ages in the community to become actively involved in the process.
TRP has worked hard in the Tilbury community and delivered a number of very successful collaborative projects including the Two Forts Way, the Tilbury Summer Festival and the Christmas Lights and Fair, all of which were home-grown projects. In addition, the Last Night of the Proms in partnership with the Tilbury Band and the Natural Meadow project in partnership with Tilbury Power Station and the National Grid have demonstrated that TRP willingness to work in partnership with like-minded organisations to tackle the problems of economic, social and environmental issues.
For the past three years, TRP has delivered a local Heritage Open Day event in September with support from English Heritage. In 2007, TRP was accorded the honour of being chosen as one of only 70 charitable organisations in the UK to receive the Queen’s Award.
Ron Curtis, the TRP Chairman said: “This funding was crucial to securing a future for this hard working charity, as the revenue funding required to maintain the administration and day-to-day activities of the charity had all but run out.
I can only thank our excellent volunteers for their support in putting the bid together, as well as thank Sharon Grimmond at the Thurrock Thames Gateway Development Corporation for her advice and guidance which proved to be invaluable.
Thanks to this grant from the Development Corporation’s Community Fund we can now look confidently and seriously to the future and keep working hard on behalf of the local community throughout 2011 and beyond.”
