Community and environmental restoration projects in West Cumbria will receive over £460,000 of new funding through Sellafield Ltd’s Social Impact Multiplied (SiX) programme.

Over the last three years SiX has supported the West Cumbria Rivers Trust with over £229,000 of funding to deliver the ‘People on the Keekle’; a community engagement and environmental restoration project centred at Longlands Lake near Cleator Moor.

The project has created forest school areas along with workshops for local children, improved accessibility and wildlife habitats and stabilised the river Ehen, as well as provided rewarding volunteering opportunities for local people.

In recognition of these successes Sellafield Ltd has announced an additional £463,647 of extended funding over the next three years, meaning the project can deliver further improvements at Longlands Lake and new projects at Dub Beck near Keekle and Mirehouse Ponds in Whitehaven.

Jodie Mills CEO at West Cumbria Rivers Trust, said: “We’re absolutely delighted to receive more funding from the Sellafield SiX programme, to benefit both people and wildlife in these wonderful green spaces that are the heart of the community.

“Being out and about in green and blue spaces is well documented to improve wellbeing and I urge anyone who lives in West Cumbria to make it their New Year’s resolution to go and visit some of these wonderful sites to see for themselves.

“Volunteering opportunities, healthy walks and green gyms are also available to help kick start the New Year. Please visit our website for more details”.

Dub Beck will benefit from vital restoration work to improve habitats and water quality, and Mirehouse Pond will see improvements to its public access and new seating and forest school area.

Gary McKeating, Sellafield Ltd’s head of community and development said: “One of our SiX objectives is ‘thriving communities’, which looks to address social and environmental issues in our communities, so it is great to see this project extended to some of our priority areas like Mirehouse, following successful results at Longlands Lake.

“We’ve also supported the four-year Wilder Walkmill project being delivered by West Cumbria Rivers Trust, which will deliver community engagement and habitat improvements to Moresby.

“I’m looking forward to seeing what both these projects deliver.”

The project will also be working with local schools to create new education nature parks in the school grounds to boost nature in education.

Any schools interested in exploring this can contact the Trust for more information.

Martin Clough, Sellafield Ltd’s head of environmental management, said: “It’s great to support projects like these that improve the environmental amenities for our communities, and it’s been good to see our environmental teams at Sellafield get involved in volunteering opportunities on the project; particularly graduates who are new to our business.”

“Our people have been involved in both this project and the Wilder Walkmill project, and we continue to work with our social impact colleagues to support community projects that ensure we can have a positive environmental impact outside of the Sellafield site.”

Find out more at: West Cumbria Rivers Trust (WCRT)