We are constantly looking for ways to put something meaningful back into the community. To that end, locally, we have financed the hanging baskets for Castleford town centre for many years now and we were instrumental in persuading the local council to provide secure motorcycle parking bays in the town centre. We have also previously sponsored a local amateur football team’s strip. In late 2020 we organised the Business for Castleford Facebook initiative, which aims to regenerate the town and reduce crime. On a different level we also take work-experience students from local schools. We do work experience properly. We do not have students here to do the filing and make tea; we give them meaningful work to do and we try to show them every aspect of the business. We also paid them the national minimum wage rate for their age group, which is not normally the case with most employers.
On the charities front we have supported several over the years. To some we’ve given one-off donations; others we support year-in and year-out. Amongst the charities we are currently supporting are the RSPB https://www.rspb.org.uk/, the Chinthowa Development Trust: https://www.chinthowa-development-trust.org.uk/, Honley Male Voice Choir http://www.honleymvc.co.uk/ and 8-Below Husky Rescue, who homed our Husky Xena with us in December 2020 after our first and much-loved Husky, Rosa, sadly passed away in October: https://www.8belowhuskyrescue.org/. Xena was rescued and treated by the lovely people at 8-Below for serious injuries after she escaped from a puppy farm at a ‘travellers’ site in Surrey which was raided by the RSPCA.
Tax-wise we pay everything we’re supposed to pay and we pay on time; Income Tax, National Insurance Contributions and Corporation Tax. Our Corporation Tax we pay early, as soon as it is computed in July each year. Some people will think we’re nuts for doing this, I know, but we’re patriots, we love our country and we don’t mind paying our fair share as soon as we’re able.
