Regional Development Programme

The Community Recycling Network UK (CRN UK), the Furniture Re-use Network (FRN) and the Community Composting Network (CCN) jointly lead a programme to support community waste organisations in four regions of England. Teams were established in the North West, South West, Yorkshire & the Humber and the East of England to support sustainable waste management in the community sector and work with existing networks.

The regional development programme was part of the wider Community Sector Support Programme funded by UK Government’s Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

One of the primary out comes was a mapping exercise of the community waste sector within the funded regions. This mapping exercise has enabled us to publish regional directories of the community waste sector which are now available online.

Although this fund is no longer available 3 of the regions have continued to attract income and expanded the work they have been carrying out in the regions. This includes working with regional agencies, local authorities, other government and non-governmental bodies as well as developing, strengthening and representing the community sector. The 4th region, the south west, is continuing to network and support the development of the sector where possible with limited resources.

Information & contacts for the regional networks.

In the regions that did not receive funding for a regional coordinator the CRN UK, supported by the FRN & CCN, ran stakeholder events for community waste groups. The events were facilitated and focused on how the networks can help the groups and whether there was a need for the development of a regional network.

The photo reports from these days are available to download:

East Midlands stakeholder day - 10th November 2005.Photo report (*.pdf 1.23 MB).

West Midlands stakeholder day - 9th November 2005. Photo report (*.pdf 1.41 MB).

North East stakeholder day - 11th November 2005. Photo report (*.pdf 1.89 MB). A regional directory is also available for this region.

South East of England stakeholder day - 7th November 2005. Photo report (*.pdf 1.66 MB).

Find out about other community waste networks.