Welsh Water helps Wrexham nursery cook up a storm in new mud kitchen

Children a nursery in Wrexham will be cooking up a storm in the garden with their new mud kitchens thanks to a donation of wooden pallets from Welsh Water.

The not-for-profit water company is currently carrying out improvement work to the sewer in Caia Park Wrexham, and after a number of deliveries to site had a pile of wooden pallets which they were keen to be reused and recycled and put to good use rather than go to waste.

Recognising the recent popularity there has been in people making things out of pallets, they thought it would be nice to offer them locally.

Homestead Nursery, in Gresford, were happy to take them off their hands as they focus on outdoor learning to encourage children’s instinctive curiosity and imagination. In the past they have recycled old wood to build a number of different play areas including a tree house and a mini castle

Rachel Lloyd, owner of Homestead Nursey said: “It was wonderful to be offered the pallets.

“We are always on the look out to be able to add to our play area and are always keen to reuse and recycle as much natural unwanted materials as possible.

“We’ll be using these pallets to create outdoor mud kitchens for the children to play and get creative with.”

Welsh Water’s Project Manager Sean O’Rourke said: “As a company, looking after the environment is very important to us, so it’s great that we can donate this wood to the local nursery to be recycled and put to good use. I hope the children have great fun playing and learning in their mud kitchen.

“When we are working in communities on major projects like our one in Caia Park, Wrexham, we always try to give back to communities either through initiatives like this or to support community groups and initiatives through our Community Fund.”

Paul Prior, site agent from Morgan Sindall Infrastructure who are carrying out the work for Welsh Water said: “As the scheme we are working on in Wynnstay Avenue is coming to an end, we seemed to have a lot of good quality pallets left on site.

“It would have been a shame to see them go to waste and we were keen to see them go for free to a good home. Protecting the environment is important to us, so it was great to hear that the nearby nursery was keen to take them on and up-cycle them.

“The nursery has some great plans for the pallets, and I hope the children will enjoy cooking up a storm and getting messy at the same time.”

Welsh Water is investing £2.3 million in the project which started in July las year to tackle flooding from the network in the Wynnstay Avenue are of, Wrexham.

The work includes installing a large underground storage tank to create more capacity in the waste network during heavy rain and reduce flooding from the network. The work in the area should be finished by the end of March. For more information, please visit: www.dwrcymru.com/InYourArea