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Mendip
Vale - Recycling Project involved
the working up of a feasibility study and preparation
of a Business Plan and funding strategy for the creation
of a social enterprise that would initially recycle
cardboard into animal bedding.
The
client for this project was Somerset County Council
and the key elements of the project were:
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Market
research - Establishing the viability of project
by canvassing key stakeholders such as waste disposal
and collection authorities, commercial recyclers,
assessing current market demand and price level.
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Capital
equipment and site requirements - Specification of
the equipment required to undertake the recycling
operation.
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Labour
requirements - Assessing the optimum level of permanent
staff and the numbers of workers/trainees/volunteers.
-
Assess
seasonality - Assess the impact seasonality may have
on the demand for the end product
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Legislation
and regulations - Make client aware of necessary
health and safety legislation.
-
Identification
of best practice - Draw out best practice from projects
around the United Kingdom.
-
Business
Plan - As well as containing the vision and objectives,
the Plan would be fully costed and would identify
appropriate management systems, and importantly a
marketing plan.
Market & Coastal Towns Initiative - Our
work has been wide ranging on a number of levels
throughout this initiative and we have worked with
a variety of towns. To provide an example, our work
with Chard MCTi involves:
-
Initial
research - Providing advice to the client at an early
stage through an inception meeting and jointly identifying
key issues.
-
Community
engagement - Providing advice on how best to engage
with a community and to help design and run consultation
events to gain the most helpful feedback. This is
being done through a series of open community workshops
and also identifying specific hard to reach groups
and specifically targeting them to gauge their requirements.
An example of this would be the farming community.
-
Evaluation
- To provide post event analysis on the feedback
and comments received. To then provide a report to
the steering group presenting the analysis in a coherent
and informative manner.
-
Strategic
Action Plan - To help draw together the results of
the community consultation and to draw together the
projects in a 20-year action plan.
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Brokering
- To take forward the action plan to a stage of mature
brokering.
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| Westden Services,
working alongside Action for Chard Town (ACT), facilitated a
very successful Stakeholder Day in June 2004. The event was attended
by over 80 representatives from key local organisations - including
a visit by Her Royal Highness, the Countess of Wessex. |
| The participants
worked in an imaginative but dedicated manner to create a vision,
clarify issues, agree objectives and prioritise projects. Feedback
from the day was very positive and has contributed significantly
to the final Action Plan. This event was tailored to the needs
of Chard and reflects the way in which Westden Services aims
to provide a unique service for each client rather than slavishly
follow a set formula. |
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