Contents:
- Editor's welcome
- Kelly McVitty: Team UK's vice-captain wins big at Invictus Games
- Keeping pets safe this Christmas
- Sweet potato, coconut and spinach curry with quinoa
- In Bloom awards: borough lands 24 golds and 3 wins
- New location for Local Studies Centre
- Hairdressing trend - 70s revival
- Graham Poole Road Transport
- Miles turned into smiles for orphaned Ukrainian children
- A short history of Hare Hill House: 1901 to now
- Health and wellbeing during Water season
- Sticky toffee pudding
- Italian restaurant Stocco opens in Norden
- Class of 2023 students celebrate at Hopwood Hall graduation ceremony
- Third time lucky as Re-use Littleborough is granted charity status »
- New Springhill Hospice shop opens in Heywood
- Victims of crime
- Rochdale soldier’s memoir of the 1915 Gallipoli Campaign
- Comedy gig with Jason Manford raises £14,000 for Petrus
Winter 2023Third time lucky as Re-use Littleborough is granted charity status
Local community group Re-use Littleborough has been granted charity status after two unsuccessful applications.
The outcome came just days after the group’s move to a new venue in Littleborough in October, with a meeting of trustees following the week after.
Re-use Littleborough exists to provide an eco-friendly solution to prevent people from throwing perfectly usable items away and help those in need, such as women fleeing violence, the homeless, those discharged from long-term hospital care, the elderly, asylum seekers and refugees.
The group first applied for charity status five years ago, but has now been accepted, meaning Re-use can apply for funding where needed and help even more people and families.
The eco-friendly cause reopened at its new venue – 111 Church Street – on 2 October, after closing the hub at the former Royal Oak Hotel in September.
The new premises has central heating, laminated flooring and more space than the former pub.
Founder and trustee Michael Bamford said: “The move to our new location has been a massive success, and then we had a phone call to say we have been granted charity status.
“Although we were waiting for the outcome it was still a massive shock to us all. This was our third attempt, having been rejected twice for some very unreal reasons.
“But we now have our charity number that will open so many doors. We have no plans as yet to apply for grants as we class ourselves as ‘volunteer led’ and ‘self-funded’.
“Our main project at the moment is financing the Resource Centre we run in Rochdale. It is only accessed by support workers that have identified a family in real need; we can provide from our donations much-needed furniture to help a family that have an empty property.”
The group was originally started eight years ago after Michael noticed a discrepancy between the waste we have in our country and those in need in poorer countries.
It began with an online post, asking for donations of unwanted baby items to send to the Forever Angels Baby Home in Tanzania and grew into a larger movement, with the main hub in Littleborough, a second-hand baby and children’s clothing shop and its resource centre for support workers.