| Greenham Common Trust has pledged to give bigger handouts to local good causes, after new figures revealed that only 47% of income gets spent on charitable activities.
Newbury.net can reveal that the £25m business park on the former Greenham Common airbase raises £3.6m a year from rents and interest – up 14% on the year to March 2004 – and spent £777,000 on supporting local charities and fundraising initiatives.
Handouts to local groups were up 4% to £318,000, and another £116,000 was spent on subsidising rents for charities operating from the park. The Trust also pays an £11 per head subsidy for everyone that visits New Greenham Arts.
Trust chairman Sir Peter Michael said: “The Trust’s contribution to projects benefiting the local community has increased significantly and covers a wide spectrum of activity. It is pleasing to note the increased awareness in the local community of the involvement of the Trust in local affairs.”
Sir Peter also pointed out that the Trust will back “at least” one major project each year. Last year it paid for a digital X-ray machine at Newbury hospital, and this year it pledged 20% of the fighting fund to buy out the Watermill Theatre in Bagnor. It has also given £550,000 to a cancer centre in Basingstoke.
Early next year, a new £1.7m office complex for local charities will open, but, with rental income bringing in £1.6m a year, and the Trust earning nearly £25,000 a month in interest, major community projects are urged to get in touch. | 
