An industrial cleaning company has opened a cafe for the “lonely and vulnerable” in Plymouth – and is now planning to build a £150,000 shelter for homeless people.
Rapidly expanding New Wave Marine (NWM) operates around the 海角视频, specialising in cleaning industrial tanks and mopping up fuel and waste spills, tackling pollution incidents, and delivering fuel, while also cleaning up student flats, superyachts, building sites and even Plymouth’s incinerator.
It has ploughed £7,000 into opening The Garage Cafe, in the city’s famous Union Street, and is already working on an idea to raise cash to build a two-storey block containing bathroom facilities for homeless people, and meeting rooms, a needle exchange, workshops for furniture restoration and art, and housing for 16 people.
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The idea is in an early stage but NWM director Jason Parsons said it was part of the firm’s ethos to “give something back” to the community.
He said the idea was for the workshops to produce goods that can be sold so the building could be “self-funding”.
“I’m born and bread in Plymouth,” Mr Parsons said. “This is the 21 Century and we still have people sleeping in doorways. It’s summer now but I’ve seen it in January and February. I’ve donated jackets, scarves and hats to them.
“I’d like other companies to do the same thing. It’s about giving a little bit back.”
The hostel idea comes after NWM backed a Plymouth business, which has a lease on a closed down takeaway unit, to turn it into a cafe for the homeless.
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The Garage Cafe has just opened on the famous Union Street strip, once the notorious epicentre of the city’s nightlife.
It only operates from 7pm top 9.30pm, and welcomes homeless people, the “lonely and vulnerable” and ex-armed forces personnel who have fallen on hard times.
The West Country’s Friary Mill Bakery is supplying pasties and sandwiches which are given out for free.
“People can come in here, have a drink, something to eat, and it’s all free,” Mr Parsons said.
He said the staff, all volunteers, simply “take their word for it” that customers are homeless and in need.
“You get to know people and get to know who is genuine,” he said.
Mr Parsons said he got the idea for the cafe after seeing destitute people in the area during winter.
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“In December I was coming down one evening and saw homeless people in doorways,” he said. “I came down here spoke to a businessman (who had the lease on the empty unit), donated £200 of food and drink and said I was prepared to help.
“We then decided to open a cafe. We put some furniture in, did the electrics and the lights, put in new windows.
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“It’s open seven days a week, but only 7pm to 9.30pm, but we want more volunteers so we can open for longer. We are already getting 60 to 70 people a night coming here.”
NWM staff have been helping at the Garage, named because of an old garage unit at the rear of the premises. including with cleaning. Mr Parsons said: “We have six or seven volunteers. If people want to help they should come down and visit it, of see Help the Homeless on Facebook.
“We also need kitchen cabinets, and other cabinets,” Mr Parsons said.
Family-run NWM has seen business and turnover rise to such an extent it has moved out of it recently moved from its 1,500sq ft home on Plymouth’s Scott Business Park to a quarter-hectare site in Plympton, on the edge of the city, where there is ample room for expansion.
Bosses are already looking at adding more specialist tankers, to the 15 it already has and which cost up to £250,000 each, and are used to tackle waste water and petroleum spills anywhere in the country.
Clients include the Ministry of Defence, incinerator firms, renewable energy facilities, demolition companies, oil recovery services, pollution control businesses, commercial shipping, port and dockyard operators and building firms.
Its highly-trained International Confined Space Rescue Unit is also on-call 24/7 ready to enter all manner of hostile environments and save people's lives.
Its rescue team can work in various scenarios such as searching for and evacuation of casualties using stretchers, rigging of hauling systems, rescue above and below ground.
It even has its own £30,000 ambulance and team members are trained to work in technically confined spaces and dangerous atmospheres such as in underground vaults, silos, storage tanks and even sewers.
The team mostly, however, trains health and safety staff in other companies, on how to deal with such scenarios.