Welcome to Elmbridge Community Eco Hub
Based in the Elmgrove Estate, in the centre of Walton-On-Thames, Surrey, UK, we provide our community with access to a multi functional, safe space where they can access many beneficial initiatives such as the Library of Things, Community Fridge, Skill Share, Repair Cafe, Small item recycling, Community Garden, Seed Bank, Jigsaw swap, Book Swap to name but a few – all under ONE roof!
As a Not For Profit organisation we rely on donations to ensure our sustainability. Without your help we wouldn’t be able to provide the community with the opportunities to learn, make, take, give, grow, share and fix in our space. Every penny donated or earned is pumped back into the organisation to ensure we continue to support our community.
Change to Opening Hours for July and August 2022
Due to staff shortages as a result of illness and holidays, we are reducing our opening hours to Mondays and Thursdays 9-4pm ONLY until the week commencing Monday 5th September
Initiatives we will be running
Latest updates
2 Tonnes of Surplus Food Saved From Landfill – SO FAR!! …
This week we hit a further milestone by saving a second tonne of food from going to waste. We opened the Community Fridge on 14th Feb 2022. It took 3 months to save our first tonne, and just an additional 1 month to save our second. This is largely down to Sainsburys Walton-on-Thames coming on board, but also the cost of living crisis and more people learning about our Community Fridge. Since opening we have had over 1000 visits to the fridge and 3000 visits to the Eco Hub! Thank you for continuing to support The Hub and its constituent initiatives.
3 month Public Consultation
Thsnk you to everyone – all 127 of you whom took the time to complete our short online survey. The information collected will help us to review and improve the way we run The Eco Hub, the initiatives we provide and the frequency and duration we are open.
You can see the full report by clicking on HERE
Closure for Bank Holidays
With the “normal” upcoming bank holiday having been cancelled and replaced with a Thursday & Friday alternative this year, we have taken the decision to shut the Hub from 4pm on 30th May until 9am on Monday 6th June. We will therefore be open as norm al on Monday 30th May 9-4pm.
The Community litter pick which would normally have taken place on Sunday 5th June, has been moved back by a week to Sunday 12th with the normal plan of starting from home and meeting at the Hub for refreshments at 10-11am.
Library of Things
Our Library of Things is up and running. You can request a membership, browse and reserve items here. At this stage you will not be asked to register any financial details, nor to make a payment. All financial transactions will take place at the Hub in person.
Crowdfund
Our first ever crowdfund ended on the 7th December as a huge success. Our target to help set up the Library of Things was £2000, but we managed to achieve an amazing £2800!!!! This money will be used to fund the significant insurance costs, software licence, training staff, secure storage and hopefully we can make it stretch to actually buying a few things for the Library itself. Amazing. Thank you!
The building
We picked up the keys to the building on the 24th November. The hall has been empty for approximately 7 years, so was full of cob webs, was VERY cold, and quite sad looking. With a magnificent effort from the community, the Hall has had a thorough clean, has been redecorated, carpets have been fitted and furniture installed. We still have some work to do to finish things off, but its been a fantastic and rapid turnaround. The electrician is coming in next week to fit extra sockets and heating and a plumber has offered to fit a hot water system. We now need someone to help with our problematic roof – it leaks due to many missing and broken tiles, and we need someone to fit skirting board. However, we cannot complain as the community has really come together to make the Hall a safe, welcoming space for all.
Volunteers
We have had a great response to the advert we placed with Central Surrey Voluntary Action, and indeed in response to a 2 page article recently published in Your Elmbridge magazine. It’s fantastic that so many people are learning about the Hub and want to get involved. Please do contact us if you would like to learn more info@elmbridgeecohub.org.uk
Community Fridge
We took delivery of our massive 1000ltr fridge this week. Thank you to COOP for providing the sponsorship in collaboration with HUBBUB to pay for it, and all associated costs going forward. On Wednesday 9th, we met with Sarah Nuttall – COOP Member Pioneer for the area. COOP are providing a huge amount of support to the Eco Hub, and have committed to providing surplus food going forward. The aim is to open the Community fridge in January 2022, dependant on Environmental health approval – which we hope is a formality.
Community Garden
Last week we had a visit by Lettie from RHS Wisley advising on the design, plant selection and timeline for the Community Garden. Earlier this week we received a donation of 750kg of wood chippings from Clive Cummings of Arborist_Surrey tree surgeons from which we have created a natural and carbon negative path along the length of the garden. On Tuesday this week we received an amazing donation of 1.6 tonnes of Grade A compost from local company Envar Composting. We have already made 4 raised – no dig beds ready for spring planting and hope to create at least as many again with the remainder of the compost.
Everything we do is centred around THREE things:
We exist exclusively for the benefit of the people in our community. We want to ensure every member of our community has access to food, skills and equipment either free or at very low cost.
We want to provide people with the opportunity to learn and share their knowledge with others. We strive to encourage and facilitate people to reach their potential, improve confidence and their understanding of the world we live in.
We believe in the circular economy and trying to improve our environment. We aim to recycle, upcycle, reuse what we can, reduce waste and teach others to do the same.
Do you want to get involved?
If you would like to get involved with The Hub, have a look at the different initiatives we run, and decide which you would prefer to be part of. It may be that there is more than one initiative that interests you, and that’s great. Simply contact our colleagues at Central Surrey Voluntary Action and they will help match your skills, interests and availability to our opportunities.
We want to provide people with the opportunity to learn and share their knowledge with others. We strive to encourage and facilitate people to reach their potential, improve confidence and their understanding of the world we live in.
If you are a business, looking to improve your CSR, then look no further.
We have a multitude of options to offer from corporate litter pick days, supporting the Community Fridge, spending a day in the community garden, conducting a skill share session, supporting with a Repair Cafe, or helping with the Library of Things.
We kindly ask for a financial contribution of £10 per volunteer, which helps us to cover our costs, and keep the Hub running.
