Parkdean Resorts is funding £30,000 worth of community projects in 2024, kickstarting the year by helping to fund a minibus for local environmental charity Plastic Free North Devon (PFND) – an initiative that will grant over 2,500 people access to free community events throughout the year.
PFND is an environmental charity on a mission to protect and improve our environment through community-led action. By working with individuals, businesses, visitors and community groups through a range of activities and projects including repair cafes and community cleans, they aim to accelerate the growth of environmental action and engagement across North Devon. The £13,000 minibus provision provided by Parkdean
Resorts will play a key role in upscaling and amplifying their activities and impact, particularly for their Ocean Explorer Academy education programme.
In these free, curriculum-linked sessions, North Devon schoolchildren visit local nature hotspots to help foster environmental stewardship and a passion for conservation in future generations. Providing minibus transport will dramatically reduce the cost of these trips to schools while increasing the charity's capacity to deliver more sessions, enabling many more students to take part.Parkdean Resorts is committed to caring for its parks, people and planet by making a positive, sustainable impact on the community. In addition to funding the minibus, the leading holiday park operator will contribute nearly £2,500 towards beach wheelchair storage on Croyde Beach, with work expected to begin this month. The company is also contributing over £1,000 in a match-funding agreement with Croyde Area Residents Association (CARA) to improve pedestrian access on Moor Lane, with ideas to install pavements and signage submitted to the parish council.
Last year Parkdean Resorts and CARA match-funded grants totalling more than £20,000 for a range of local projects. Members of the Croyde Surf Life Saving Club are due to celebrate the grand opening of their brand-new clubhouse this April, which is being built as a result of one such grant.
Ruda Holiday Park in Croyde is one of 66 parks owned by Parkdean Resorts. Sitting within North Devon’s Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), the team at Ruda is committed to responsibly managing Croyde Beach and the surrounding area to keep it fun, inviting, and clean for the community, as well as the 90,000 holidaymakers who visit the park each year.
Claire Ward, Assistant General Manager at Ruda Holiday Park, said: “We’re delighted to be supporting Plastic Free North Devon by funding their minibus. The charity has always been passionate supporters of our environmental campaigns at Ruda, so it’s fantastic to be giving back to their team while helping the North Devon community.
“By funding these local projects, we aim to create a positive impact on both the environment and the lives of the people in the local area. We look forward to seeing the Ocean Explorer Academy grow and provide more opportunities for local children to connect with nature.”
Claire Moodie, Chief Executive at Plastic Free North Devon, said: “We’re so grateful to Parkdean Resorts for funding the minibus. Plastic Free North Devon already work closely with the team at Ruda to deliver educational outreach, upcycle tent and body board waste, and support their environmental projects including sand dune restoration and beach cleans. We’re excited to extend our working relationship with Ruda and amplify our collaborative impact through this new initiative.
“The minibus will enable us to make nature more accessible for low income and disadvantaged families. It will be used regularly throughout the year for running our education programme, repair cafes, beach cleans and transporting people to Croyde Bay events that would otherwise remain inaccessible. Parkdean Resorts has enabled us to upscale our outreach and engagement, and we are very excited about the increased opportunities this will provide for our community.”
