GLYNCOED COMMUNITY GROUP recently received a donation from Persimmon Homes as part of their Nature Day.
The event saw local children engage in bug hunting, bird spotting and bird box building, led by the Group’s Vice-Chair Lyn Turner and attended by local county councillor Chris Smith. The bird boxes will be put up on tress that run next to the new cycle path between the Persimmon site and the existing Glyncoed community.
Persimmon East Wales donated two bird boxes made by their own apprentices – one for children to decorate and the other for the Ebbw Vale-based group to raffle off at their Family Festival. They had previously donated £1000 and top soil for the community garden last year.
Persimmon is developing just a stone’s throw away from Glyncoed and where the event occurred at its Carn y Cefn site, which will be home to 275 houses when complete.
The five-star builder prides itself on its homes being priced 25 per cent below the national average, opening the opportunity of homeownership to thousands of families every year who might otherwise not be able to afford it.
Persimmon donates nearly £50,000 each year to valued organisations across Wales each year as part of its Community Champions initiative, helping local schemes thrive in the area where it builds.
Earlier this summer, the East Wales business also donated £3,000 to Heads of Valley ABC, an amateur youth-centred boxing club based in Ebbw Vale, a few minutes’ walk away from the Carn y Cefn site.
Commenting, Persimmon Homes East Wales Sales Director Victoria Williams said: “We’re proud of the community support we’ve provided in Ebbw Vale since starting construction on Carn y Cefn, a fantastic site that will produce high-quality homes for local people in Blaenau Gwent.
“We were delighted to help Lyn after she approached us with the great idea of donating some bird boxes for Glyncoed Community Group’s events, which have been crafted by our apprentices.
“Just like when we donated to the Glyncoed group before and, more recently, the Heads of the Valley ABC, excellent initiatives like this are exactly the kind of thing we love to support because we want future residents to benefit from them too.”
Lyn Turner, Chair of Glyncoed Community Group, added: “We’re very grateful to Persimmon for helping us out with the event, which we were delighted was so well attended by local children, and that we got the assistance of nearby tradesmen too.
“I love working hard here with and for my neighbours in Glyncoed to put on events like our Nature Day and Family Festival, which I’m sure will eventually include future residents of Carn y Cefn, because providing opportunities for the local kids to enjoy and educate themselves is so important to us.”
Chris Smith, County Councillor for the Beaufort ward, commented: “I think the work the Glyncoed Community Group do is absolutely fantastic and providing these great days out in the summer holidays is something the local children could really benefit from.
“It is also positive to see developers like Persimmon engage with those in the areas in which they build and the bird boxes they produced looked high quality.
“The new cycle track, by which the Nature Day was held, will see the trees adorned by these bird boxes and the children of Glyncoed will be able to walk or bike past the contributions they have made to the local area.”
