Hewden shows Christmas spirit

UK plant hire company, Hewden has given a local charity some help in its Christmas preparation by loaning it an operated articulated boom.

The boom was used to help decorate a Nordman Fir which stands at the entrance to the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust's Wolseley Centre in time for its annual Christmas fayre.

Wolseley warden, Dan Saberton said "We have only recently run power close to the tree and thought that it would be a great idea to create a Christmas lights display to welcome visitors to the centre during the festive season.

"However, the tree stands at an impressive 35 feet tall and we realised that we had to call in professional help in order to put up the lights safely. Hewden was only too happy to help out and organised for the 60 ft, Genie 260/34 articulated powered access platform to be supplied in a very short time-frame.

"Even better, Hewden also provided a highly-skilled operator that could manoeuvre the machine easily, meaning that it took just over an hour to decorate the entire tree.

"As a charity, we rely on the generosity of organisations like Hewden and are extremely grateful to the guys at the company's Willenhall depot for lending us the cherry picker so quickly - it would have been impossible for us to get the job done without it."

Hewden is part of Finning Group (UK) and earlier in the year, Finning gave the charity another helping hand by loaning a Caterpillar mini excavator, which was used to excavate a scrape (shallow ditch) for wading birds in a wet meadow and to create two footpaths.

This year, the company is celebrating its 75th birthday and marked the occasion by becoming bronze corporate members of the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust. As part of the celebration, the firm is encouraging staff to undertake a day's voluntary work with organisations such as the Trust on nature reserves and other areas across the county.