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About Us
Gloucestershire Gateway Trust was formed in 2007 bringing together a group of leading local business people and social entrepreneurs.
The Trust secured its charitable status in 2011. However, the idea of creating a motorway services on the M5 which would not only create local jobs but provide a sustainable income to help local communities thrive, first came to Mark Gale, chief executive of Gloucestershire Gateway Trust, in 1994.
“We had 28 million vehicles a year carrying over 40 million people into Gloucestershire at one end and going out the other on the M5. No-one in the communities it passed by got any benefit; it was just seen as a problem bringing pollution, congestion and noise.”
Now, 20 years later, Mark’s vision has become a reality thanks to a unique partnership with the Westmorland Family business in developing the new Gloucester Services on the M5. More than 400 jobs have already been created – with at least half going to people living in the Trust’s target communities of Matson, Tuffley, Podsmead and White City and the Stonehouse/GL10 area - and two community support hubs have been opened.
“Now we’ve turned the M5 into a community asset.”
Gloucestershire Gateway Trust is the charity partner in the new M5 Gloucester Services, working alongside the Westmorland Family, pioneers of building motorway services ‘with a difference’; focusing on local suppliers and high quality food.
First for the UK
Gloucestershire Gateway Trust and the Westmorland Family are a partnership between a family business and a local regeneration charity, each with a stake in the business and its impact on local people and communities.
This project is a first for the UK, demonstrating how charities and businesses can unite around a common interest to generate substantial benefit for both.
Gloucester Services’ partnership with the Trust is not just about charitable donations, it is a more fundamental way of connecting business and community for the benefit of both. Gloucestershire Gateway Trust aim to generate long-term community benefit and sustainable income for charitable partners working in our target communities in Gloucester and Stroud.
Gloucestershire Gateway Trust know that successful long-term regeneration in target neighbourhoods needs the creation of accessible local employment opportunities and new community investment. Working together will deliver these essential elements.
Why is the M5 Gloucester Services unique?
It is the first partnership project between a family business and a charity of its kind in the UK. Gloucester Services has already:
- Created around 400 permanent local jobs targeted at local people
- Supported more than 200 local and regional food and craft producers in its farm shops, butcher and fish counters, lifestyle sections and kitchens
- Raised awareness of local community and charity partners, many of whom we have been working with for several years
- Established ‘Growing Communities’ community planting areas and beehives
