This is a CTP of initiative: Fair Shares (UK)
The idea of a motorway service that not only creates local jobs, but also contributes to thriving local communities first came to Mark Gale, Chair of Trustees of Fair Shares, in 1994. However, it took more than 12 years to implement this idea due to formidable procedural barriers faced in securing funding, planning permissions, building support for the project and fighting legal challenges from commercial companies with interest vested in conventional service station operations. This history is one of emergence of new ways of organizing an income stream for community and civil society organizations, based on new socio-economic relations between Charitable Trusts and Private for-profit companies and achieving breakthrough for new business models after these were challenged and contested and subjected to judicial review.
The idea was to address a local problem by designing a win-win solution. It involved making use of former farmland along the M5, which runs through the middle of Gloucester, and turning this into an asset that serves local community interests and supports community development. The land had been a farm. Its viability was compromised when the motorway crossed over it, taking part of the land away and leaving the rest fragmented and on either side of the motorway.
Mark Gale is the initiator of the Gloucester Motorway Services. He had been awarded the status of ‘Community Entrepreneur of the Year’ for previous contributions to community development in Gloucestershire. In 2004 he initiated a local debate and discussion about a ‘green’ motorway service area. He first approached the local Member of Parliament (MP) with the idea, but was unable to obtain political support for it. He therefore shifted the focus to businesses as potential partners. He and Carlos Ordonez, who has been an early supporter, developed a comprehensive strategic outline for their vision of a green motorway service area and searched for an investment and operating partner.
By 2007 enough interest had been shown for a company to be established - The Gloucester Gateway Trust (GGT). The charitable status of the company was approved in 2011. The GGT brought together a group of leading local business people and social entrepreneurs. The Tudor Trust funded the operating costs of the GGT and with financial support of the Summerfield Trust GGT secured options on the land. Westmoreland Ltd. – a family owned company that had previously established a similar service station – became the business partner, providing the investment needed to develop the service station and becoming its owners and operators. The land was then purchased later in the same year.
The process of implementing the project has been an experiment in new ways of collaborating and achieving partnerships between Civil Society Organizations, Charitable Trusts and Businesses around the idea of strong local identity and providing alternatives to the ‘uniformity’ of standardised provision by multinational operators. GGT carried the project forward. Over several years it went through the necessary planning and permitting procedures and finally obtained the planning permission from the Stroud District Council in 2010. However, a judicial review was initiated by other market operators of service stations who opposed the decision to grant development permission and challenged its legality. This caused a delay in implementing the project. The appeals were rejected in 2012. Construction works on the northbound side began in 2013. These were completed in 2014.
The Gloucester Gateway Services is a partnership between a charity (the Gloucester Gateway Trust) and a business (Westmorland Limited) around a common interest to create benefit and value for both. In contrast to other motorway services, the Gloucester Motorway Services does not operate franchises. Instead it has local suppliers providing all services and operates as an outlet and showcase for local produce. Its facilities include a farm shop, gift shop, local butchers shop, and a fishmonger. The cafe and restaurant serve fresh and locally produced food. The facility draws from and supports local identity. The concept of focusing on local resources and local producers of food and craft has already supported more than 200 local and regional producers and created around 400 permanent jobs for local people.
Besides serving local commercial/economic interests it also generates sustainable income that flows back into local communities via GGT. At the moment GGT invests directly in six local organisations that are seeking to create local benefit and make use of an Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) approach. This distribution of funds provides them with relative sustainability and autonomy and enables them to sustain their operation as grassroots-driven and person-centred organizations with a local identity.
The synergies of the partnership are being developed; for example, the Growers Community Project provides work experience at the GMS for people with learning disabilities or recovering from mental illness who usually are excluded and find difficulty entering the regular (mainstream) labour market. The partnership between the family business and the trust creates opportunities for economic activities that also provide positive social impact benefits within the local community in Gloucestershire, establishing new socio-economic relations.
For Fair Shares this CTP is particularly decisive as it has secured 5 years dependable funding for the time bank that covers the fixed costs of operations without being required to adapt to unnecessary external agendas and conditions placed on them by external sponsors; e.g. monitoring and evaluation procedures that oversee the efficiency of the service delivery over and above new learning and positive impacts in the community.
The Gloucester Gateway project was co-produced by several actors in a co-evolutionary process.
Mark Gale, now chief executive of GGT and formerly Chair of Trustees at FS, was a major actor, His passion for improving the lives of disadvantaged residents was a driving force. It was his idea to turn the motorway through Gloucester into an asset by creating a business-charity partnership and a business model that would benefit the local community along with commercial interests. This has proven to be a viable concept, capable of uniting commercial and social targets.
He was inspired by the ideas and experiences of Stan Thekaekaras, (CEO of Accord, a community development project in India) about turning deficits into assets. A meeting with a local consultancy, Co-op Futures, to explore the development of social enterprises also contributed to Mark Gales’ vision on how to turn the M5 ‘deficit’ and the waste land on each side of the motorway into an asset.
However, the concept would not have been realised without the financial and moral support of the foundations and trusts that gave the project funds, but also credibility and legitimacy. The Summerfield Trust supports good causes in the area of Gloucestershire covering topics such as arts, natural heritage, education, and community projects. The Summerfield Trust secured the option to purchase the land along the M5 where, now, the two Gloucester Motorway Services (GMS) (north- and southbound) are located. Further funding was granted to set up the Growing Communities Project that particularly addresses marginalized groups of the local people, for example people with learning disabilities or those recovering from mental ill health. The Tudor Trust also contributed decisively to the development of GMS by their financial support during the key formative phase. The Trust supports “particularly smaller, community-led organizations that work directly with people who are at the margins of society.”
The operational partner of the GMS is the Westmorland Family. The origin of their operation is located in Tebay, Cumbria. In 1972 the farmers John and Barbara Dunning, in partnership with local bakers, set up the first family-owned and family-run motorway service station in the UK. Since then the motorway service station is still family owned and still supporting local farming and selling local food and products. The values of the Westmorland Family are incorporated in their daily business and represent a strong focus on local products and producers, environment, community and local identity. Important for their business is to be rooted in the place where they operate by cooperating closely with locals to “strengthen the reason for being there.” Local acceptance is, from their perspective, a key factor for a successful company. Hence, the GGT and the Westmoreland Family are well matched in terms of values and focus. The connection to the local community is given by the GGT and the business experience is provided by the Westmoreland Family.
The early involvement of the local residents in Gloucestershire also contributed to a successful implementation of the project. The residents had the opportunity to participate in public meetings to discuss probable advantages as well as disadvantages. The educational work, informing people transparently about plans and progress, contributed to winning local support.
Mark Gale has since become Chair of Gloucester Gateways Trust and – to avoid conflict of interest – has resigned as Chair of Fair Shares. This will enable the Trust to handle all future work and the six founding partners it now funds on equal terms.
Several events allowed the CTP to be implemented.
An earlier model for a motorway services station run along lines consistent with community values and community development had already been established by the Westmorland Family, providing a precedent.
In 2004, the lack of support for the idea on the part of the local MP led to a shift in the funding concept for the project. As government funding could not be expected, the project aimed to partner instead with a business investor and to combine commercial and social interests in a new business model for both the project and for local community organizations.
The project gained public attention in 2005 when a meeting with the Transport Minister took place and a newspaper article was published. Local residents were consulted in the early phases of the project to also discuss criticisms and opposition.
In 2006 first contact with the Westmoreland Family was established. The Gloucestershire Neighbourhood Project Network visited John Dunning of Westmoreland Ltd. and Tebay. This existing project was seen as demonstrating that a mission- and vision- led business can be successful commercially and might even create greater commercial benefits by being socially-led as well as being driven only by an economic logic.
In 2008 the Highways Agency circular changed the advised minimum distance between motorway service stations, setting a gap of at least 30 miles between stations. This legitimated the chosen site for the Gloucester Motorway Services, as the distance to the nearest service station was 40 miles. There was therefore a ‘gap’ in the network of service stations that the Gloucester proposal could fill. This provided scope for a motorway service station to be included in the local development plan and gave scope for seeking and securing development permission.
A challenge to the decision to grant permission for development of the service station was mounted by competing motorway service operating companies. This forced a judicial review. The appeals were rejected. This was decisive for the development of GMS and represents a precedent for future projects that intervene in usual commercial settings and add a social aspect.
The idea of combining a motorway service station with a local charity to transform the perceived ‘deficit’ of a motorway through the middle of Gloucester into an asset that contributes to a thriving community created some initial opposition among different stakeholders.
Mark Gale had approached the local MP but first reactions to the proposal were negative. In 2010 the local MP was still sceptical about the project. The Stroud District Council meeting voted in favour of the project and granted planning permission. However, the local MP claimed the decision was based on economic factors, not social impact: “It went through because the District finally bought into the GMS as an economic generator and a job provider”. A more positive attitude was presented as the project progressed and as community benefits became more obvious; e.g. in respect of the Growers Community Project that particularly supports marginalized groups of the local population.
Local residents were sceptical about the proposal and a campaign against the motorway service area was initiated. One concern of the residents was the part-time nature of the jobs at the GMS. A resident predicted: “they would be poorly paid, part time, anti-social hours type jobs, which would end up being taken by Eastern European migrants”. The concerns and opposition of local residents in Brookthorpe were particularly strong. However, the GGT implemented a participatory process to inform and engage people in the project, organizing public consultation meetings, resident groups, and activity days. This has allowed people to become part of the project and to allay their concerns. Initial criticism and opposition was turned into positive support.
‘Welcome Break’ and ‘Roadchef’, which are among the largest motorway service area operators in the UK, initiated a challenge, claiming inter alia that: “the council failed to consider the impact on the landscape and unlawfully imposed a technical planning condition.” The claims were rejected, creating the legal breakthrough needed to implement the project. The opposition delayed the project by one year.
The implementation of the GMS was based on a long period of preparation and planning. It was based on a strategy that had been developed by Fair Shares in response to learning through experience that there was a need to develop independent income streams for local community organisations.
It was based also on learning that social entrepreneurship and partnering with private business could provide an alternative to public funding that was difficult to secure and, even when secured, came with conditions that detract from core mission.
It took more than a decade from idea to realisation of the project, with benefits to local community organizations as charitable partners of GGT only now beginning to flow.
Demonstrating that the unusual partnership of businesses and charities is feasible and benefits both parties establishes a potential precedent for future business plans for social innovation organisations, such as time banks. This was anticipated by the initiators of the project.
Throughout the process of setting up the Gloucester Motorway Services several challenges arose. Lessons have been learned about how to overcome these. Initial opposition to the project from some local people was openly addressed. An open discussion about negative and positive perspectives is recognised to have encouraged a transparent way of working by the leading organizations and this is recognised to have helped to reduce resistance among residents. Although the judicial review has caused frustration and confusion, it has shown that other combinations of legal entities, such as the partnership between a Limited Company and a Charitable Trust, can be carried to completion and can be justified legally.
This project is a pioneer in exploring ways for sustainable and independent funding streams for charitable organizations. The breakthrough of embedding commercial activities in a local context, using local assets, and rewards for the local community demonstrate future possibilities for innovative combinations to achieve a greater contribution of businesses to their local environment. The Westmorland Family approach to business is to embed their commercial activities in the local context to secure both their economic activity and community support and benefits. In that perspective, the right to operate locally comes from their contribution to the community and their support of it. The social benefits of the project are now beginning to be felt, so there is scope for learning about what these are and how to maximise the benefits.
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