The Sustainability Centre was honoured to receive a visit from HRH Prince Of Wales in December 2006.
On arrival the prince ditched his regular mode of transport and hopped into our woodland vehicle for an hour long tour around the site.
The visit was for Prince Charles to see first hand the work of Phoenix Futures and to have a chance to talk to people on the rehabilitation programme and the centre that work with Phoenix. The Prince is the patron of Phoenix Futures the UK’s largest network of drug and alcohol treatment services.

The Sustainability Centre has worked with The Phoenix Futures house, based in Droxford, for a number of years now. This pioneering conservation therapy programme aims to teach people how to develop and promote knowledge, skills and lifestyle that improve quality of life while caring for the environment at The Sustainability Centre.

The Prince expressed great interest and commended the Centre’s work promoting renewable energies, particularly biomass fuel and environmentally-friendly ways of heating and powering buildings. He was very interested in our woods and really knew his stuff about trees!

Catching glimpse of our timber frame buildings he was very keen that these traditional skills revived, promoted and enjoyed, perhaps he’ll book on a course here with us himself?
He was presented with a bouquet of flowers to take home for the Duchess of Cornwall, presented to him by a Petersfield School pupil. These pupils attend the site once a week where we provide alternative tuition to students who find fitting in difficult with traditional schooling. This outside tutoring is working wonders focusing these more challenging pupils and giving them real results, teaching them respect and giving them confidence and ambition!

To find out more about the site and see what the Prince saw why not pop along yourself? Open everyday 10am to 4pm, weekend café 11am to 3pm.