CHARITIES TO BENEFIT FROM COUNTY COUNCIL INITIATIVE

Two major charities are set to benefit from a Cambridgeshire County Council initiative.
Marie Curie Cancer Care and East Anglia’s Children’s Hospice (based at Milton, near Cambridge) could receive substantial donations from County Council staff under a new scheme launched this week.

The County Council is the first local authority in the country to join the Pennies from Heaven scheme. This scheme asks employees to donate the ‘odd’ pennies from their net monthly salary automatically to charities.

The maximum any member of staff would therefore donate would be 99p a month – or £11.88 a year. But with around 16,000 staff at the County Council, the benefits to charities could be substantial.

The two charities to benefit initially have been chosen following discussions between the Unions and Human Resources staff.

The County Council’s Chief Executive Alan Barnish has given his personal support to the initiative and has written to all staff urging them to join the scheme. More than 1,200 have already done so.

He said: "The charities we chose were selected because of the wonderful work they do. Our support will help them make a real difference to people’s lives."