12/08/2008

Water workers have been at panes to finish a gardening project at a North East care home.

Twenty four employees from Northumbrian Water spent a day at The Whinnies, Sunniside, near Gateshead, carrying out various gardening duties, including work on greenhouses, under the company’s ‘Just an hour’ scheme.

The Whinnies, which is a care home for older adults with learning disabilities, have 13 allotments, 10 of which are rented out to people in the local community.  The other three had not been used in many years and were very overgrown.

It took more than 180 hours of hard work by Paul Lowe from Guisborough, Duncan Ross from South Shields, Darren Burton from Washington, Danny McDermott fro Hebburn, Kevin Thompson from Blyth, John Burrell from Peterlee, Eddie Roscamp from Easington, Barry Loftus from South Hetton, Chris Notman from Thornaby, Gunter Von Der Geest from Newcastle, Barry McIntosh from Stockton, Paul Shield from Bishop Auckland, Chris Burt and John Baston from Durham, Steve Devitt and Shaun Rowden from Billingham, John Sprentall, John Mercer and Paul Woodcock from Darlington, Gordon Musson and Richard Cooke from Seaham and Kevin Cassidy and Marina Proudfoot from Sunderland, to build a hard standing for two green houses.  Other tasks undertaken included strimming, rotivating and general gardening duties.  

The team were so keen to finish the job, they came back the next day to build the greenhouses on the hard standing they prepared the day before.

Northumbrian Water’s ‘Just an hour’ scheme gives employees the opportunity to spend at least 15 hours of paid, work time a year improving local communities in the company’s supply area - from Berwick to North Yorkshire and across to the Pennines. 

Paul Lowe, Northumbrian Water’s Leakage Team Leader, said:  “This was a very fulfilling challenge and the team were so keen to see the job complete that a few keen volunteers came back to finish off building the greenhouse.  The residents of The Whinnies were very welcoming and made us all scones – which was a very welcome break.”

Brenda Cawton, Home Manager of The Whinnies said: “We are in the process of renovating these three large allotments.  Two allotments are available for more able bodied people and the third allotment will be suitable for wheelchair access with greenhouses and raised beds.  We are so grateful to the team at Northumbrian Water who worked so hard and achieved so much in the day they were with us.”

Since the ‘Just an hour’ scheme was launched in 2002, Northumbrian Water employees have spent more than 20,000 hours working on local community projects and improving the environment.

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For further information please contact Carolyn King on 0191 301 6722.