Solway Red Squirrel Group has received £1,000 of funding through SPAR’s Community Cashback initiative.
The group is a voluntary organisation set up in 2012 to try and protect local endangered red squirrels from extinction and its work feeds into overarching conservation work carried out by Red Squirrels Northern England.
The red squirrel is an iconic native species, and working across the Solway area, the group’s ambition is to preserve the status of the red squirrel for the benefit of local communities and future generations.
Martyn Richardson, Managing Director of M&L Richardson & Sons Ltd, was on hand to meet members of the Solway Red Squirrel Group outside his SPAR store at Cardewlees.
Stephen Kirk, representing Solway Red Squirrel Group, said: “The SPAR Community Cashback grant will help enormously to sustain our conservation efforts which are currently based around protecting an established red squirrel stronghold. This is in the hope this will allow population numbers to build further and, in time, gradually disperse to other areas.
“Our volunteers are engaged in a year-round programme of woodland surveys, camera monitoring, supplementary feeding, recorded sightings and grey squirrel control, alongside various public engagement events to promote our conservation message.
“The funding from SPAR specifically will help provide feeding boxes, supplies of feed, and some better quality, more expensive trail cameras and batteries that can monitor red squirrel activity and populations remotely, enabling volunteers to be more hands on with other group tasks.”
SPAR Community Cashback returned more popular than ever in its fourth consecutive year and James Hall & Co. Ltd, SPAR’s primary retailer, wholesaler and distributor for the North of England, received 1,400 applications from charities and organisations across the North.
Nationally, more than 65 charities and local groups have shared a £100,000 grant fund this year, and since Community Cashback launched in 2021, grants have been awarded to nearly 200 organisations, highlighting SPAR’s long-term commitment in supporting local communities.
Martyn Richardson said: “It was a pleasure to hand over the cheque to the Solway Red Squirrel Group who are a lovely organisation and are committed to preserving one of the North of England’s best-known species.
“As a SPAR retailer whose stores are across the red squirrel’s last remaining strongholds in England – Cumbria and Northumberland – I was interested to learn more about the work the group do and give something back to the community to support this extremely worthwhile effort.”
James Hall & Co. Ltd is a fifth-generation family business which serves a network of independent SPAR retailers and company-owned SPAR stores across Northern England six days a week from its base at Bowland View in Preston.
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