Ripon Community Link and Dales Water have been jointly nominated for a Local Business Charity Award.
The shortlisting comes on the back of the water well drilling company sinking a bore hole on land at Ripon Walled Garden – one of the charity’s two sites – as well as agreeing to install a treatment plant free of charge, which will resolve a long-running issue the charity has with its current supply.
The existing supply is unpredictable and of poor pressure, which causes many operational difficulties, including not being able to supply the Garden and the Tea Room simultaneously.
The installation of the bore hole well alongside a water treatment plant – which are due to be operational from March – will not only rectify this but will enable a future sewerage system, providing much improved facilities for members and to enable improved toilet and baby change facilities, thus appealing to a wider public base.
In addition, improved watering will enable growth of more plants adding to the sustainability of the charity who sell a huge range of plants, hanging baskets and Christmas trees from the Walled Garden.
The award – which rewards charitable businesses all over North Yorkshire – celebrates local companies who support their local charities and aims to give praise and recognition for companies and people who are doing the most to support their local charities.
Victoria Ashley, Chief Executive of Ripon Community Link, said:
We are indebted to Dales Water for ‘donating’ the bore hole and installing the water treatment plant, both of which were a financial impossibility for us this year.
We are also grateful to a longstanding volunteer who made the introduction and has provided invaluable advice and support.
Dales Water’s support and generosity is simply fantastic, and I’m delighted this has been recognised in a small way by this award nomination.
With a dedicated, reliable, water supply we will be able to greatly improve our facilities. It even means that we can create an irrigation system which will save on staff time and costs to automatically water the garden, so more money can be directed into frontline services.
Jonathan Dalton from Dales Water said:
When Ripon Community Link contacted us they never asked if we would consider undertaking this project free of charge.
However, after a site survey it was clear the cost may have been prohibitive, and, recognising how important this project is, we said we would do it gratis.
We are a proud member of Ripon’s business community – and have been so for than 30 years – and it’s rewarding for us to be able to give something back and support this very worthy charity.
The awards ceremony will be held at St Wilfrid’s Church, Harrogate, on Wednesday 30 January and will include stalls for all charities involved as well as the awards presentation itself.
