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PRESS RELEASE

August 7 2003 CRN/AN/PR43

To be released immediately

NEW CRED BUSINESS SUPPORT TEAM LEADER APPOINTED


Paul Knuckle
CRED Business Support Team Leader

The Community Recycling Network (CRN) has appointed Paul Knuckle to oversee the Community Recycling and Economic Development (CRED) Programme Business Support Team.

Paul was Head of Local Food at the Soil Association for five years. "My job was all about developing the social, environmental and health benefits of local food. While there I set up the National Association of Farmers' Markets, was a director of Sustain - a consortium which lobbies Government on food issues, and created major grant schemes for community groups."

Before joining the Soil Association Paul worked for CRN as a Development Manager. He was involved in the initial funding for London CRN and represented the community sector on the National Recycling Forum.

Prior to working for CRN, Paul was part of a two-man team in the early days of Network Recycling where he contributed to ground-breaking new programmes within events recycling, waste analysis and sustainable waste management within the transport sector.

He joined Network Recycling after studying for a Bsc in Environmental Management at the University of the West of England. Paul decided to become a mature student after working for some time as an Account Manager at BT. mf The CRN has staff which provide assistance to projects applying for CRED grants in England. Paul now joins this team and will assume overall responsibility for the business support service.

Paul says: "As Team Leader of the Business Support Team I will ensure that the CRED Programme fund of £35.2 million is spent on delivering the most effective, productive and sustainable waste management projects within the community sector that deliver social benefits. "

I trust the money will develop the community recycling sector to the extent that it becomes the option of choice in delivering large scale sustainable waste solutions for England."

He added: "I look forward to the challenges ahead and anticipate that quality partnerships and relationships between the public, private and voluntary sector will happen as a consequence of this programme.

ENDS

Notes for editors: The Community Recycling Network is a national umbrella organisation for more than 300 community groups, co-operatives and not-for-profit businesses in the community waste sector. Its aim is to promote community-based recycling as the most effective way of tackling the UK's growing waste problem. Its members have achieved some of the highest recycling rates in the UK and offer separated kerbside recycling collections to 1.6 million households - seven per cent of the UK population.

Through the New Opportunities Fund's Transforming Communities initiative, the Royal Society for Nature Conservation (RSNC) is working in partnership with the Fund in England under the Transforming Waste funding programme. RSNC is leading a consortium of recycling specialist organisations: the Community Recycling Network, the Community Composting Network, London Community Recycling Network, Waste Watch, the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee, CREATE UK, the Environment Agency and the Furniture Recycling Network.

The CRED Programme has been developed by the consortium of partners who have wide experience in developing and implementing community waste projects and regulating waste. The programme will give away, in England, £35.2 million of New Opportunities Fund lottery money in grants of between £50,000 and £300,000 between 2003 and 2006. The programme will support a wide variety of community-based projects.

The Royal Society for Nature Conservation (RSNC) is a registered charity, incorporated by Royal Charter, to promote conservation and manage environmental programmes throughout the whole of the UK. It has established management systems for holding and distributing funds totalling more than £21 million annually to environmental projects across the UK.

The New Opportunities Fund, the largest National Lottery distributor, supports projects in health, education and environment across the UK. The Fund works with national, regional and local partners from the public, private and voluntary sectors to fund initiatives with particular focus on the needs of those who are most disadvantaged in society.


The Community Recycling Network is based at Trelawny House, Surrey Street, Bristol, BS2 8PS, tel: (0117) 942 0142. The CRN website is www.crn.org.uk.

For media enquiries about the CRED Business Support Team please contact: Andy Nelmes, CRN Press Officer, 0117 908 0415 or 07949 626119, andyn@crn.org.uk

For media enquiries about the CRED Programme please contact: Emma Drake, PR Officer CRED Programme, 01636 670 045, edrake@rsnc.cix.co.uk, www.rsnc.org