The Veolia ES Cleanaway Pitsea Marshes Trust was established to support local amenity projects close to Pitsea landfill site.

The trust is completely independent and the Trustees include local representatives who help ensure that the projects supported are of real local benefit. The Trust holds an Annual Review Event and produces a separate Annual Review Document, to ensure that it remains focused on accountability and transparency as well as celebrating successful projects and encouraging new project applications.

The Trust has established long-term strategic partnerships to complement and enhance the work of other organisations in its operating area including Basildon and Castle Point Councils, the RSPB and Wildlife Trusts.

	Beneficiaries include Wat Tyler Country Park. Adjacent to the Pitsea Landfill, this 125 acre country park on the urban fringe is the gateway to the Pitsea Marshes. Over ten years, the Trust has funded 14 projects, including:

• Bird hides
• Children’s play areas
• Education toilet block
• Garden extension
• Interpretation boards & leaflets
• Miniature railway - extension
• New educational pond
• Outdoor Pursuits Centre
• Park gates, security fencing, parking, access, signs, speed ramps
• Sculpture trails
• Skirts Meadow coppicing, path & landscaping

Recent projects Bringing the Iron Age to Hadleigh - this project aimed to provide a unique multi-purpose building of historical interest in the shape of an Iron Age Roundhouse. It will be used primarily as a teaching facility for Hadleigh Castle Park’s environmental and history programmes. The replica was built using traditional skills and materials including straw thatch, compacted soil and wattle and daub - but unlike the original Stone Age roundhouses, this one needed planning permission from the Council!

The Veolia ES Cleanaway Pitsea Marshes Maintenance Trust (VESCPMMT)
The Veolia ES Cleanaway Pitsea Marshes Maintenance Trust (VESCPMMT), was established specifically to provide funding to ensure that the Pitsea landfill site is ultimately managed for controlled public access and nature conservation and is accessible by the public after the 5-year post-closure statutory period.

This trust was set up in acknowledgement of the fact that the local authority could not fund public access and that nature conservation bodies, such as the Essex Wildlife Trust, would only be able to manage the site for nature conservation and controlled public access if a long-term funding stream was available. VESCPMMT does not make project grants.

The Trust recently produced a DVD film describing the history and development of the area and explaining what will happen to the site after 2017 when the landfill operations cease. Narrated by Tony Robinson, 'Recycling Land' was awarded "Best Non-Broadcast Production 2007" at Creative East Awards.