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| Councillor Mel Kendal |
Leader of New Forest District Council, Councillor Mel Kendal, has thanked the people of the New Forest for their generosity in helping the tsunami aid appeal and has offered council facilities to voluntary groups for fundraising purposes.
Cllr Kendal said:
"There are fairly strict rules relating
to what local authorities may and may not do when offering support
and aid to foreign countries affected by disaster; the law does
not allow us to spend the council taxpayers money for this purpose.
However we are able to offer some facilities, such as meeting halls, free of charge to charity organisations assisting with the tsunami relief efforts – for
example, the sports halls at our health and leisure centre could
be used for fundraising events.
We would like to make this offer to the many voluntary groups across the New Forest that are working to raise money for the tsunami disaster victims.
We are
exploring other ways, both medium and long term, that council's
resources can assist the worst hit areas of East Asia.
Furthermore,
the council is sending 10,000 extra-strong blue rubbish sacks
to help the victims of the tsunami in The Maldives.
The sacks, provided for special use by the Environment Agency, are more robust than normal rubbish sacks and were previously used by householders in the Ringwood and Fordingbridge area to recycle paper and cardboard.
But the sacks are no longer needed because both towns joined the now district-wide clear sack re-cycling scheme last summer.
Councillor Kendal
said:
"We are grateful to be able to help and to donate the
surplus sacks to the Friends of the Maldives charity based in Southampton. The sacks
are strong enough not only to be used for rubbish but also to be used
for clothing, aid or equipment and they have handles which will make
them more useful."
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