Site Tours and Visitor Centre
The Gloucestershire Energy from Waste Facility has a fully equipped Visitor Centre, which includes the Aerodrome classroom, the Meteor meeting room, an exhibition area, and the Visitor Centre garden. It provides a venue for school, college, community, and other interest groups to meet and learn about sustainable waste management and resource use, with access to a working facility. A dedicated Community Relationship Manager is based on-site to host visitors and assist in delivering events.
The Visitor Centre can be used for a variety of reasons, including:
Educational tours which give visitors a chance to learn more about the energy from waste process, whilst seeing first-hand how the Facility is used to generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of around 25,000 homes.
Hosting courses and workshops on the waste hierarchy, climate change, and sustainability.
A space for community meetings and events, including the use of the outdoor education zone and picnic area within the Visitor Centre garden.
Providing an adequately resourced working environment for businesses and community groups to hold networking events and meetings.
Displaying community art exhibitions and science challenges.
The Aerodrome classroom is ideally resourced to cater for approximately 20 adults or groups of 30 children, whilst the Meteor meeting room is suitable for bookings of up to 10 users. Larger groups can be accommodated upon request – please contact the Facility team for more details and to discuss your individual requirements. Site tours for community and mixed groups can be booked for up to 15 people, whilst tours for any school bookings of between 15 and 30 students, and their teacher(s), will be split into two sessions.
Local community and educational groups are able to use the Visitor Centre’s amenities for free and businesses can hire the space for a fee. A nominal charge may be levied to cover costs incurred to supply specialised materials not required for normal activities in the Visitor Centre. Catering can be provided on request and costs will be charged back to the user following the booking. All site tours are free of charge.
Bookings
The Aerodrome classroom or the Meteor meeting room are available to book for your organisation between 9am and 9pm Monday to Friday, and between 10am and 4pm on weekends.
Tours of the Facility, which include the use of either the Aerodrome classroom or the Meteor meeting room, can be booked between the hours of 9am and 5pm Tuesday to Thursday – Wednesdays have, however, been set aside to prioritise bookings from schools and other educational institutions with spaces available from autumn 2024. Tours can be booked for individuals as well as groups, but due to popular demand, the Facility team will seek to combine smaller group bookings wherever possible.
Facility tours are currently available for general users to book from early 2025. Due to historic popularity, we anticipate availability to be booked quickly so please do not delay in seeking to make your reservation. Please check here for the latest tour availability.
Community outreach talks, where representatives from the Facility visit establishments to provide information on the energy from waste process, are also available upon request for community groups, educational institutions, or businesses. Talks can also be delivered virtually.
For all bookings and enquiries, please contact the Facility team here.
The Facility is close to Junction 12 of the M5, on the B4008 near Dobbies Garden Centre.
