We are committed to being a good neighbour to our local community
and our “caring for the community” philosophy involves being part
of local and regional communities. Our involvement takes the form
of sponsoring a variety of local charities and fund raising events,
promoting our own campaigns which focus on the three themes of
youth sport, education and the environment, and maintaining open
communication channels and good working relationships with the
region’s key opinion formers.
Some £24,000 of the total donations were made under the direction of our sponsorship team, across a range of activities within a 20-mile radius of the power station.
Each month the team meets to consider requests received for charitable donations and community sponsorship and makes awards against our criteria of furthering community, environmental and sporting interests.
An example of the good causes supported through the sponsorship team in 2008 is The Prince of Wales Hospice in Pontefract, West Yorkshire. Providing services to around 190,000 local people, the hospice cares for adults with progressive illnesses free of charge. Heavily dependent on donations, we are pleased to play a small part in helping to keep these services available.
Drax also operates a “£ for £” matching scheme, under which we match, £ for £, any monies raised for charity by employees. During 2008, approximately £31,300 of the total donations made were through this scheme.
For the fourth year running, we ran a scheme to encourage and reward good safety performance during the planned outage periods. Through the scheme £500 is donated for every seven days that goes by without an injury requiring more than first aid treatment. In total £8,000 was raised during the two outages. The money was divided equally between Lindsey Lodge Hospice in Scunthorpe, a charity chosen by Drax and Martin House Children’s Hospice in Boston Spa, selected by our contractors, Doosan Babcock.
For the second year running we held a charity corporate golf tournament at the championship course at Fulford, York. The event raised £3,000 for The Yorkshire Air Ambulance, which provides a crucial emergency service for the region.
Other sponsorship activities included a £40,000 donation to the Selby Abbey Restoration Appeal. The donation not only ensured that the Appeal’s £4.5 million target was met, but importantly that a reserve fund was set up to assist with future restoration work.
Strengthening our links with the game of cricket, for the second year we ran the Drax Cup, a cricket competition for teams of girls and boys under the age of nine.
A total of 270 primary schools, treble the number of last year, across Yorkshire took part in the knock-out tournament organised by The Yorkshire County Cricket Club (“Yorkshire CCC”) in conjunction with The Yorkshire Cricket Board and The Yorkshire Schools’ Cricket Association. The semi-finals and final were played at Headingley Carnegie Stadium, the home of Yorkshire CCC and a long-standing venue for test matches and one-day internationals. This year the winning school was High View Learning Centre, in Wombwell, near Barnsley.
Under the “Art in the Community” banner, we held our second art competition for primary and secondary schools. Double the number of entries of the previous year’s competition were received and the winners and their schools shared in prize money totalling over £2,500.
We also held a two-day art camp in the Summer for seven to 13 year-olds. Under the guidance of local artist, Mark Hearld, the budding artists produced their own artistic interpretations of the Drax nature reserve and the materials handing area of the power station site. The artwork is to be pieced together to produce a large format mural which will become a permanent feature in the newly refurbished materials handling offices.
Sponsorship in the community
During 2008, we gave financial support of £137,012 in total across a range of charitable and non-charitable causes. Of that total, charitable donations amounted to £99,952 (2007: £73,754).Some £24,000 of the total donations were made under the direction of our sponsorship team, across a range of activities within a 20-mile radius of the power station.
Each month the team meets to consider requests received for charitable donations and community sponsorship and makes awards against our criteria of furthering community, environmental and sporting interests.
An example of the good causes supported through the sponsorship team in 2008 is The Prince of Wales Hospice in Pontefract, West Yorkshire. Providing services to around 190,000 local people, the hospice cares for adults with progressive illnesses free of charge. Heavily dependent on donations, we are pleased to play a small part in helping to keep these services available.
Drax also operates a “£ for £” matching scheme, under which we match, £ for £, any monies raised for charity by employees. During 2008, approximately £31,300 of the total donations made were through this scheme.
For the fourth year running, we ran a scheme to encourage and reward good safety performance during the planned outage periods. Through the scheme £500 is donated for every seven days that goes by without an injury requiring more than first aid treatment. In total £8,000 was raised during the two outages. The money was divided equally between Lindsey Lodge Hospice in Scunthorpe, a charity chosen by Drax and Martin House Children’s Hospice in Boston Spa, selected by our contractors, Doosan Babcock.
For the second year running we held a charity corporate golf tournament at the championship course at Fulford, York. The event raised £3,000 for The Yorkshire Air Ambulance, which provides a crucial emergency service for the region.
Other sponsorship activities included a £40,000 donation to the Selby Abbey Restoration Appeal. The donation not only ensured that the Appeal’s £4.5 million target was met, but importantly that a reserve fund was set up to assist with future restoration work.
Education in the community
Our “Cricket in the Community” initiative launched in May 2006 has continued to prove popular with local schools. The England and Wales Cricket Board (“ECB”) qualified coaches on our staff, together with England ladies’ cricketer, Katherine Brunt took cricket coaching to schools in the local area as part of our support for education and to promote sports learning as part of the National Curriculum.Strengthening our links with the game of cricket, for the second year we ran the Drax Cup, a cricket competition for teams of girls and boys under the age of nine.
A total of 270 primary schools, treble the number of last year, across Yorkshire took part in the knock-out tournament organised by The Yorkshire County Cricket Club (“Yorkshire CCC”) in conjunction with The Yorkshire Cricket Board and The Yorkshire Schools’ Cricket Association. The semi-finals and final were played at Headingley Carnegie Stadium, the home of Yorkshire CCC and a long-standing venue for test matches and one-day internationals. This year the winning school was High View Learning Centre, in Wombwell, near Barnsley.
Under the “Art in the Community” banner, we held our second art competition for primary and secondary schools. Double the number of entries of the previous year’s competition were received and the winners and their schools shared in prize money totalling over £2,500.
We also held a two-day art camp in the Summer for seven to 13 year-olds. Under the guidance of local artist, Mark Hearld, the budding artists produced their own artistic interpretations of the Drax nature reserve and the materials handing area of the power station site. The artwork is to be pieced together to produce a large format mural which will become a permanent feature in the newly refurbished materials handling offices.
Visitors to Drax
Thousands of visitors are welcomed to the power station every year. The appeal of discovering more about how power is produced and the sheer scale of the site and its associated activities attracts schools and colleges as well as business organisations and associations. During 2008, we played host to some 6,550 visitors.
Caring for the community
Our approach to community engagement takes many forms, but adheres to the themes of environment, education and youth sport.
