Published: Thursday, 18th June, 2009 5:00am

Business and community leader made an MBE

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Stuart Tagg

THE CHIEF executive of a pioneering economic and charitable partnership has been made an MBE.

Stuart Tagg received the award for services to business and to the community in Berkshire and Hampshire for his work with the Greenham Common Community Trust.

Since it was set up in 1997 it has created a 150 acre sustainable business park on the site of the former Greenham Common airbase, which generates revenue that has been used to support hospitals, charities, sports centres and theatres.

Mr Tagg, a solicitor with a Masters degree in Business Administration who lives in Newbury, said on the trust"s website: 'The project has developed over the years and is now poised to become an exciting and innovative model for business in the next millennium. It harnesses the best that the private, public and voluntary sectors have to offer and turns their joint efforts to the good of the community.

'If the model works, and I think it will, it can be repeated in a wide range of different situations. Over the next few years we will also see the restoration and ecological improvements of the open areas of the common and their return to community use. It will be a major challenge, but one worth rising to.'

Mr Tagg was head of legal and administrative services at the former Newbury District Council before becoming the trust"s chief executive in 1997. In 2003 and 2008 it received The Queen"s Award For Enterprise for Sustainable Development and in 2004 it was given the South East England Development Agency"s Sustainable Social Enterprise Award.

Mr Tagg, 55, who has lived in Newbury for 25 years with wife Valerie and is a father of three and grandfather of one, said: 'It is a very practical way to engender the idea of self-help in a community and make sure a community can support a range of charitable projects. Money is generated locally and spent locally. We think it would be a really good model for other areas.

'It was a big surprise to get the letter in the post but a pleasant surprise.'

www.greenham-common-trust.co.uk

www.new-greenham-park.co.uk