DUMPING rubbish has netted community projects in Bexley more than £1m.

The money comes from a tax on rubbish sent to landfill by Cory Environmental, the company behind the Belvedere incinerator project.

The company has created a charitable trust, the Cory Environmental Trust in Britain (CETB) to channel the cash into community projects.

Altogether it has helped 90 projects across the UK, all of which have to be within 10 miles of one of Cory’s landfill sites, and 18 have been in Bexley.

The biggest single Bexley grant of £98,800 was given to the Thames 21 Riverkeeping project, to help its three-year programme to clean up the River Cray.

The trust has also given another £113,000 to extend the Riverkeeper project to the River Shuttle and Wyncham Stream.

It has given two grants to Bexley Heritage Trust, totalling £156,500 to the restoration project for Hall Place in Bourne Road, Bexley, and to fund a permanent display at Hall Place for Bexley Museum exhibits.

CETB has also funded a number of projects at Bexley churches.

These include £80,000 towards new heating systems at Christ Church, Erith, and St Paulinus, Crayford; £60,000 towards rewiring and a new sound system at Christ Church, Bexleyheath; £11,250 towards the creation of a community garden at All Saints, Belvedere, and £20,000 towards a soft play area for children at Belvedere and Erith Congregational Church, Belvedere.

The project to provide a lasting Olympic legacy at Erith Yacht Club, by providing affordable sailing opportunities for everyone, including disabled sailors, received an £80,000 CETB grant.

And it has given Bexley Mencap £87,000 towards its efforts to buy and fit out a building in Church Road, Erith, to use as a new headquarters and resource centre.

Other recipients include Belvedere Community Centre which received £50,000 towards the cost of refurbishing its toilets and rebuilding a classroom area; £23,000 towards the resurfacing of the ballcourt in Wolvercote Road, Thamesmead, to bring it back into use; £55, 000 for a biomass boiler at the Crossness Industrial Museum; £43,500 for a new entrance to Shenstone Park, Crayford, and £50,200 to the evnvironmental charity Froglife for its work on standing water habitats in Bexley.

Malcolm Ward, Cory chief executive said: “We are trying to put something back into the community.

“We would also like to find projects closer to the incinerator which we can help fund.”

To find out more about applying for a CETB grant, call 01753 582513, email ajhaymonds@cetbritain.freeserve.co.uk or go to coryenvironmental.co.uk/page/cetbappforfunding.htm