Press release -
Balmedie volunteer wins national BT award
Champion fundraiser Bill Murray, who’s spent more than twenty years supporting Balmedie Leisure Centre, has won recognition and a £1,000 award from BT’s chairman, Sir Michael Rake.
As chair of the charity that runs the leisure centre on behalf of Aberdeenshire Council, Bill has helped to fundraise around £500,000, including £326,000 for a new coffee shop. The leisure centre provides sports facilities and a cafe for local people and is seen as an invaluable local resource. The location acts as a base for local community groups to meet and run their activities, including sports facilities for school children from nearby Balmedie Primary School.
Bill, 64, beat off competition from colleagues around the UK to win the award – one of only three presented to BT employees each quarter. Nominations are received from across the UK, including Openreach, BT’s local network business. The three quarterly winners must impress judges with their community volunteering and fundraising efforts.
Working as an Openreach job controller in Aberdeen, Bill coordinates the tasks carried out by engineers around the UK on complex data networks for large organisations. He volunteers in his own time and the awards from BT have gone straight back in to his fundraising efforts. Bill has clocked up a staggering 345 volunteering hours in the past year, spent mainly on fundraising.
Bill said: “I’ve lived in Balmedie all my life and I’ve been chair of the local committee for six years. I’m really proud of the work everyone does to keep the leisure centre running. My wife and daughter also help out, it’s a real family affair. From cutting the grass to repairing nets, I’m always kept busy.
“The range of activities and events going on here is incredible, from toddlers’ groups to pensioners’ bingo, there’s something for everyone and this very welcome extra money from BT will help us to keep it all going. I’m sure I’ll be volunteering twenty years from now!”
Ian Hill, chief sustainability officer for Openreach, said: “Bill’s achievements are impressive and winning this award yet again is great recognition for the work he does. Not only has he raised significant sums of money but he’s worked tirelessly to help support vital services in his community.
“Last year, more than 650 Openreach employees in Scotland volunteered more than 435 days in their local communities. Using some of the skills they’ve gained at work and their own determination to help their communities up and down the country, Openreach people are at the heart of every community in Scotland.”
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About Openreach
Openreach is the UK’s leading digital infrastructure provider.
Its 32,000 employees are responsible for building and maintaining millions of miles of fibre and copper cables that connect every home and business in the UK to local telephone exchanges. Openreach operates and maintains this network to deliver a range of wholesale services for more than 560 retail providers, who in-turn provide telephony, broadband, TV and data services to more than 30 million consumer and business customers throughout the country.
Openreach is a highly regulated business, with more than 90 per cent of its revenues generated from services that are regulated by Ofcom. Any company can access its products under exactly the same prices, terms and conditions.
Over the last decade, Openreach has invested more than £10bn into its network and is currently building the UK’s largest fibre broadband footprint. This technology is available to more than 26 million homes and businesses, with tens of thousands more gaining access each week.
Openreach is a wholly owned and independently governed division of the BT Group. For the year ended 31 March 2016, it reported revenues of £5.1bn.
For more information, visit openreach.co.uk
About BT
BT’s purpose is to use the power of communications to make a better world. It is one of the world’s leading providers of communications services and solutions, serving customers in 180 countries. Its principal activities include the provision of networked IT services globally; local, national and international telecommunications services to its customers for use at home, at work and on the move; broadband, TV and internet products and services; and converged fixed-mobile products and services. BT consists of six customer-facing lines of business: Consumer, EE, Business and Public Sector, Global Services, Wholesale and Ventures, and Openreach.
For the year ended 31 March 20161, BT Group’s reported revenue was £19,012m with reported profit before taxation of £2,907m.
British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group plc and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group. BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York.
1The results for the period have been revised to reflect the outcome of the investigation into our Italian business. Detail of which is set out in our third quarter results announcement published on 27 January 2017. This financial information is unaudited.
For more information, visit www.btplc.com
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