PartnerCHIP's first phase has been funded by Surrey County Council. This is to set up compost demonstrations (trailer and at Old Moat), and to provide a shredder hire service so that people keep as much as possible of this waste in their gardens, either composting it or using it as mulch. This phase began in March 2005.

At the moment, we are continuing this on a volunteer basis, as no funds are availabhle for expansion, however, we have big ideas is more volunteers and more funding become available ....

For a possible large-scale Phase II, we are interested in carrying out a trial, because:-

• some material can never be re-used in people's gardens,
• some people are not able to operate a shredder,
• and there is much re-claimable organic waste at the tip, and it should be recycled locally.

As a trial, we want a small team of work-experience people for a short period to provide a composting service for those who cannot, and to do a trial of a firewood/kindling/charcoal community business. We are intested in finding potential partners to seek funding for this.

If this trial were successful, we could to go to larger scale operations:-

1. create social employment for handicapped and work experience people in community composting
2. utilise the large quantities of useable wood in the waste by selling it as kindling or as logs
3. develop charcoal making for larger logs
4. develop a community compost yard
   

As these elements are entirely new developments in Epsom and Ewell, we need to discover if this work is suitable for the target groups of trainees, if suitable staff can be found, and whether the necessary land and premises are available. As the trainees might be from vulnerable groups in society, we must set up systems for staff supervision and careful selection of trainees would be needed, and we need to prepare for this by doing a thorough trial first.

As further small-scale stages, for which we will apply for funding later, we hope to set up:--

• shredder timeshare schemes, where 30 householders each pay £10 for a new shredder, and they have the right to use it one specified day a month (e.g. the 19th),
• composting services for all public facilities (e.g. old people's homes, hospitals) and,
• a working compost demonstration at every school in the Borough.

We hope to develop contacts with local community and amenity groups to help plan the development of PartnerCHIP