Communities
Objective
Make a positive contribution to our local communities
Goals
Develop lasting relationships with local communities and other stakeholders
Engage and inspire the next generation of skilled employees
Create opportunities for communities to connect to nature
“The volunteering events are an excellent way for our employees to give back to the local area and are thoroughly enjoyed by all who attend. Access to nature is something we know is important for people’s mental health, so it is great to be able to offer this opportunity for our employees to take time away from their regular jobs and get outside whilst doing their bit for the environment.”
Steven Curtin, Area Operations Manager, Yorkshire
Tarmac seeks to be an integral part of local communities. We recognise we have an important role to play not only as a local employer but also a key member of the local areas in which we operate.
Highlights
Building stronger community relations
Through volunteering days, Tarmac teams have been involved in a wide range of improvement projects including footpath repairs, management of ancient hay meadows, tree planting, woodland maintenance, the removal of plastic tree guards for recycling, replacing benches, and helping to improve wildlife habitats.
In July 2023, volunteers from the Midlands team at Tarmac visited the Peak District on a teambuilding day to restore a collapsed wall with help from the Peak District National Park Rangers. Together, they reconstructed a stone wall which now stands proud in the Peak District National Park. This activity formed part of a wider teambuilding workshop, aimed at encouraging Tarmac volunteers to collectively attempt something different and continue building stronger relations with each other and with the community.
Our visits to the Peak District continued throughout the year, and in September, volunteers from Tarmac restored a treasured pathway in the Peak District. Rob Kenning, who leads the Peak Park Conservation Volunteers (PPCV) group for the National Park Authority, stated: “The work done by the Tarmac team has not only helped to reveal the striking stone flags that form the Miner’s Path for all to enjoy, but also helps us to assess potential future repairs or maintenance needs on the route, which is easier to see with the path fully cleared.”
The RSPB’s Sandwell Valley site in Birmingham was visited by Tarmac employees in February for improvements to be made during another volunteering day. RSPB Sandwell Valley is an open space for people to visit, walk and observe birds and wildlife, and acts as an invaluable space for Birmingham’s community. The volunteers were tasked with removing reeds and rushes to create a view through from the main visitor’s pathway across marshland. In addition, the group tackled clearing hawthorn bushes, small trees, and brambles away from a separate area, to help maintain the meadow.
Supporting education and development of young people
Employees from Tarmac’s Tunstead site were pleased to support a science fair attended by local school children. The event took place in late March at Taddington & Priestcliffe CofE Primary School, with children from Peak Dale and Dove Holes primary schools also attending the event. Around 200 children took part in the fair, getting involved in various activities as they worked their way around different stalls. The event was organised by parent volunteer, Luke Wilkinson, with the support of a £700 grant as part of British Science Week 2023.
In May, our National Technical Centre, based in Ettingshall, Wolverhampton, took the opportunity to host a series of interactive sessions for 10 civil engineering students from the University of Wolverhampton. The students were invited to the lab for the first time since Covid-19 restrictions eased, where sessions provided valuable insights and practical knowledge in the field of pavement design and asphalt technology – bridging the gap between theoretical learning and real-world applications.
Tarmac’s Mountsorrel Quarry joined forces with local charity Love4Life in 2023 to help provide support for young people aged 11 to 18. The new partnership aims to support the charity’s vision for a world where every young person knows their worth and is empowered to build a life they love, equipping them with the tools needed to build confidence, resilience and make positive life choices. To support this work, Tarmac has donated £3,000 to the group to fund these sessions in a secondary school local to the quarry for the 2023/24 school year.
Solutions for the Planet
This year saw Tarmac complete its ninth year of partnership with Solutions for the Planet, a sustainability-centred STEM programme for school pupils aged 11-14. Tarmac employees continued to provide mentoring and support to students from schools across the country to turn their big ideas into creative business plans and live projects, generating achievable and beneficial solutions for the world’s environmental problems. In addition to the 37 Tarmac employee mentors who worked with 19 schools, Tarmac employees also supported as judges for shortlisting, the regional finals, and the national final held at the Palace of Westminster.
Tarmac Landfill Communities Fund
In 2023, the Tarmac Landfill Communities Fund helped to build a brand-new community hall in Nottinghamshire, one hundred years after the previous building was funded by a similar donation. Work started on its replacement in early 2023, and the new building was completed on 1 December. The new community hall can accommodate up to 200 people standing and 96 people seated. It has everything needed for community events, as well as a meeting room, clerk’s office, and accessible toilets.
Furthermore, the Fund has supported in the creation of a new cycle track for the community at the Cottonmill Community & Cycling Centre, in Sopwell, St Albans. The wider project includes the restoration of existing dirt jumps and a cyclo-cross course, as well as an upgrade of the main hall which features a café, kitchen area and Changing Places toilets.
The Landfill Communities Fund is committed to encouraging outdoor activities and contributed to the new children’s play area opened on Hadrian’s Wall at The Sill: National Landscape Discovery Centre. The play area has several unique features to provide a variety of stimulating challenges for children under 12 years of age with different abilities. The playscape is also home to an extensive sandpit which encourages children to shape their own National Park landscape. Tarmac hope the playscape and other such projects we get involved in are great additions to improving the quality of outdoor spaces.
The Landfill Communities Fund was established by the Government in 1996. It enables landfill operators to donate part of their annual tax liability to enrolled Environmental Bodies for a variety of approved community and environmental projects. For more information, visit www.entrust.org.uk or email [email protected].
Improving the local environment
We work hard to minimise the impact of our operations and to restore our sites, leaving a positive lasting legacy for future generations. Tarmac’s Restoration Team provides support and guidance to our operational teams on the management of biodiversity, restoration, and aftercare of extractive sites. As part of these restoration works, we are committed to a net positive biodiversity contribution. Once mineral extraction is completed, the land is restored to a range of different land uses such as woodlands, agricultural fields, hedgerows, or conservation grasslands, leaving the natural environment in a measurably better state for biodiversity than before mineral extraction.
In support of improving local environments, in 2023, an extensive restoration project took place at Broom in Bedfordshire. What was once a sand and gravel quarry is now 83 hectares of UK Priority Habitats – habitats considered as threatened in the UK – including the development of a wildlife reserve called the Broom East Wildlife Conservation Site. This positive impact will continue with the creation of an additional 71.6 hectares of wildlife habitats as part of the progressive restoration of Broom.
A 20-year restoration project is being completed at Scorton to turn the quarry into a nature reserve. As part of the project, 50 acres of new parkland, 34 acres of woodland and three acres of fringe reedbeds have been created. Public access was provided to the restored areas in 2010, with footfall increasing since extraction concluded in 2021.
Panshanger Park, also a former quarry site, was restored to a stunning country park with several wetland areas and habitats. The country park opened to the public in 2014. The restoration of the quarry workings provided the opportunity to increase and enhance the wetland habitats throughout the valley floor, creating high priority habitats that include 780 metres of chalk river, seven hectares of fen and wet grassland, and eight hectares of eutrophic standing water such as ponds and lakes. Tarmac continues to maintain the park and support its biodiversity.
Looking forward
In 2023 we worked to update our community engagement policies. We hope to continue the work on these and be able to roll them out and ensure we are working with and supporting our communities in the most effective way. This includes continuing to grow volunteer hours across the business, through new opportunities and increasing visibility of the ways employees can get involved. We’re looking forward to partnering with Solutions for the Planet for the tenth year and to see this programme continue to grow with the support of colleagues from across the business. We encourage all our sites to keep up-to-date community engagement plans to maintain strong community relations and support the areas in which we operate.
