A community organisation on the Wirral had some energetic support, as a team from local gas distribution network Cadent turned up to offer a helping hand.
 
The company, which ensures gas arrives safely to nearly 11 million homes and businesses in the UK, focussed a little extra attention on just one – Beaconsfield Community House, in Rock Ferry, the headquarters of Neo Community.


Merseyside and Cheshire-based gas engineers, who would normally spend the day (and night) maintaining, repairing and adding new connections to Cadent’s 131,000km of pipes, took time out to help decorate this centre.
 
They painted a room which houses the centre’s ‘social supermarket’ (a facility offering surplus supermarket food in return for donations, of money or volunteer time). They also planted borders and sourced hanging baskets for the local area.
 
Steve Hayes, network engineer for Cadent, said: “We’d normally spend our days serving a wide community by ensuring gas reaches homes, for cooking and heating. But it’s nice too to be able to help in different ways, like this – providing a little extra support to what is an incredible community facility. We had a great time.”
 
Beaconsfield Community House has been operated by Neo Community since last year. As well as becoming the HQ of the group (founded in 2013), Beaconsfield houses training rooms and other facilities that support the local community. Its kitchens also fulfil various catering contracts, including for Tranmere Rovers.
 
Cadent, formerly part of National Grid, is the UK’s biggest gas distribution network. It ensures gas reaches homes and businesses across England, from Cumbria to North London and the East of England to the Welsh borders. It actively encourages its employees to support community projects like this, ensuring arrangements are in place for its day-to-day business activities to carry on unaffected.