| Administrative History | The Staffordshire Environmental Fund was established as a Company in July 1997, with a registration at Companies House as a Company Limited by Guarantee without Share Capital (no. 3405575). It was also Enrolled by Entrust as an Approved Environmental Body (no. 086188) in June 1997, Entrust being the Regulator of Environmental Bodies (under the Landfill Tax Regulations 1996, amended 1999).
The Fund's purpose was to control funds raised by a charge levied against landfill operators and to spend them on local charitable causes. These included churches, historic buildings including industrial heritage, museums, community centres, leisure activities, and wildlife, landscape or environmental projects, a total of 872 projects.
Grants were made under the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme (later the Landfill Communities Fund) or under the Coalfields Regeneration Trust (Staffordshire Coalfields Community Chest and Staffordshire County Council's CRT Support Fund).
The Fund was wound up in December 2013, mainly because more local businesses and domestic households have taken part in recycling their waste so the income generated by charging the landfill operators became smaller.
Individual projects included the National Memorial Arboretum, Alton Castle, Beaudesert Park, Lichfield Cathedral, Chasewater Railway, Chasetown Regeneration Project, visitors centres at Wolsley Bridge for the Staffordshire Wildlife Fund and at Rudyard Lake, threatened habitats on Cannock Chase, recovery of metals in the ceramic industry, Thors Cave, and Doxey Marshes. A grant was also made to the Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Archive Service towards the purchase of the Sutherland Collection in 2001. |