Helston company employees get green fingered (From Falmouth Packet)

Helston company employees get green fingered

12:05pm Friday 13th November 2009

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A team of green-fingered volunteers from specialist self-catering letting Agency, Classic Cottages, rolled up their sleeves to help clear gorse and scrub for the National Trust in Cornwall recently.

Seven people employed by the family-run company, which markets more than 700 properties across the south west, took a day out of the office and dedicated their time to help the charity with the mammoth task on Predannack Cliffs, near Mullion.

Armed with saws and cutting equipment, employees from the property management, accounts, IT and marketing departments, spent a full-day clearing overgrown areas to enable rare plant species to flourish and help traditional breeds of cattle to graze. Cuttings from the gorse and scrub were burnt on the downs at the end of the day.

Staff at Classic Cottages, based in Helston, helped to clear a river at Lanhydrock near Bodmin of the invasive and fast-growing Himalayan Balsam plant back in May. They also took part in a beach clean at Church Cove on the Lizard last year.

Lucy Cooper, Classic Guide Manager for Classic Cottages was involved in the clearing work, said: “As a company offering holidays in the south west, we are very sensitive to our surrounding environment. We have a commitment to putting back what we can and like to take a real hands-on approach.”

Lucy has been tasked with organising future volunteering events for Classic Cottages and is looking to work with more local charities and organisations. As well as receiving the Gold Green Tourism Business Scheme (GTBS) award, the company recently published its ‘Green Guide’ aimed at property owners (classicgreen.co.uk) and regularly donates to the charity Cool Earth. It is also working closely with the Woodland Trust to dedicate and preserve areas of woodland across the south west for people to enjoy in the future.

Justin Whitehouse, Lizard Area Warden for the National Trust was thrilled with the work undertaken by the volunteers, “The National Trust has a huge task managing our coastal properties for the benefit of conservation and access. Scrub clearance and grazing of the cliffs and heath lands is essential for all kinds of wildlife, from the obscure plant Fringed Rupturewort, which is found only on the Lizard, to the well-known and charismatic Cornish Chough. “Without the hard work of volunteers such as those from Classic Cottages, these and many other rare and threatened species of plant and animal would not survive. A healthy environment is not only good for wildlife, but also good for the tourism and the Cornish economy.”

”We’re so committed to taking this forward in the future that we’ve promised to donate the time of several staff for volunteering activities on a quarterly basis,” says Simon Tregoning, Managing Director of Classic Cottages. He adds, “Our team made a real difference on the day and to the work achieved and this is part of our on-going green approach in terms of caring for the planet.”

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