Wates Chairman Lives The Dream

A dream came true for Wates Group Chairman Tim Wates, when he took to the turf of his beloved Crystal Palace Football Club at Selhurst Park.

Tim was playing for the Wates football team along with David Morgan, Executive Managing Director, in a tournament to support the Cut It Out knife crime prevention event, organised by the Palace for Life Foundation. Wates Group was the main sponsor of the day-long function aimed at reduction of knife crime in Croydon. It featured a wide range of supporting organisations, including the Metropolitan Police, Taking The Initiative and Off The Record.

The Wates Group has close links with Croydon going back four generations of the Wates family to when Edward Wates founded the company in the South London borough 127 years ago.

The development, building and property maintenance group supports a multitude of key social impact initiatives in Croydon, including Lives Not Knives, Be Inspired (formerly Gloves Not Gunz), the Croydon Apprenticeship Fair, the Zen Project for mental health, plus projects for planting vegetables in the grounds of sheltered housing, and providing food for the homeless.

Playing at the back as a team anchor, Tim did not score on the night, but it was an ambition fulfilled, and as always, a Wates Team effort.

’The important thing is that we all win by helping to improve young people’s lives through creating safer communities in which they have more opportunities to prosper,’ said Tim.