Milton Keynes firm supports environment by donating truck to local charity

The truck will support the trust’s firewood enterprise, growing an important new revenue stream, and will help the small environmental charity in their quest to plant five million more trees between Bedford and Milton Keynes.

The Marston Vale area used to be known for the vast clay pits excavated to fuel the brick-making industry, these pits subsequently became colossal landfill sites.

However since the early 1990s, the Forest of Marston Vale has been planting trees to transform the landscape and make the Marston Vale a thriving place to live, work and play.

The charity has helped plant over one million trees and has been instrumental in transforming this fallow, waste-filled landscape into ‘a haven’ for everyone to enjoy - walking, running, cycling, tree climbing, and wildlife spotting.

Robina Ballard-Davis, the charity’s fundraising officer, said: “We are a small charity with a big vision about using trees to grow a better future.

“That vision will be helped enormously by having the right equipment for our firewood operation at our Marston Moretaine site.”

The charity’s existing truck was not able to cope with the increasingly heavy demands of the firewood business and it struggled to function on the loose gravel surrounding their barn area.

This meant that staff had to resort to physically moving the logs - an extremely labour-intensive and time-consuming process.

The need for a forklift truck that functioned outdoors as well as indoors was essential and threatened to hold the charity back from reaching their targets.

Hearing about the charity’s desperate need for functioning equipment, Jungheinrich offered the trust a refurbished TFG 316s forklift truck free of charge. In addition, Jungheinrich heavily discounted weighing scale equipment supplied with the truck.

“The team here are very excited about it because it means that it is going to speed up our firewood production process,” says Robina.

“From a charity point of view it is not only saving time, but it will ultimately increase our funds by helping us grow our firewood sales.”

Receiving the truck on behalf of the charity, James Russell, forest director, said: “The new truck will help us take the next big step forward in growing our firewood business, which is helping us manage our growing woodlands sustainably.

“We’re handling more and more firewood each year and the forklift will enable us to do that with much greater efficiency.

“It’s a very effective piece of machinery – I’m absolutely amazed by the generosity of Jungheinrich.”

Handing over the truck, Amy Owen, Jungheinrich UK’s area sales manager, said: “We were very happy to help out.

“Our head office is in Milton Keynes, so it’s nice to support local charities where we can.”