'Balloon-gate' tweet wins £500 for Devon charity
A twitter appeal by local businessman Adam Stone against a company’s 'ecological vandalism' has won a £500 donation to the Devon Wildlife Trust.
While passing Exeter Car Dealers Bristol Street Motors, Adam saw an employee release handfuls of helium balloons into the sky rather than safely deflate them.
After his chance encounter, Adam Stone CEO of Rokk Media and a director of The Daily Uk Ltd took to twitter to challenge the company directly.
Adam messaged the company: “@BristolStMotors I watched an employee of yours in Exeter release hundreds of helium balloons just now rather than deflate/gather”
“As well as [an] impact on local wildlife, this could also affect planes/helicopters. Is this standard practice?”
Shortly afterwards, Robert Forrester CEO of the dealership’s owners, Vertu Motors, replied on twitter to personally apologise and make amends.
Adam Stone said: “He told me that he contacted the general manager and reassured me that it was a one-off act of laziness and idiocy and will definitely not happen again.
“He also contacted other branch managers to ensure that it didn’t happen elsewhere.”
Adam, who jokingly dubbed the incident "Balloon-Gate", suggested that the company make a donation to the Devon Wildlife trust to make up for the potential damage caused.
The Trust is a charity that secures the habitats of local wildlife often by clearing up ecological damage caused by humans.
A spokesman for the trust said: "Balloon releases like this one are essentially acts of mass littering. What goes up must come down and many balloons will find their way on to our seas, fields, nature reserves and so on. There have been many recorded events of farm cattle, fish and mammals being found to have eaten the remains of balloons. The result of this can sometimes be fatal.
"We welcome Adam’s swift reporting of this incident and then the swift response of Bristol Street Motors in educating its staff in the dangers of this kind of balloon release.
"The £500 donation from Bristol Street Motors will be used to help the work we do protecting Devon’s wildlife for the future. It’s much appreciated."
A spokesperson for Vertu Motors said: “When Mr Stone brought this matter to our attention, our Chief Executive immediately responded and looked into his concerns.
“We have a robust environmental policy in place, with clear guidelines of how colleagues should dispose of helium balloons in a manner which is sensitive to the local area.
“On this isolated occasion, one colleague did not follow these guidelines and all colleagues have now been reminded of these obligations. As a goodwill gesture, we have offered to donate £500 to the Devon Wildlife Trust, the charity chosen by Mr Stone.”
Adam said: “I was really impressed at how the company handled this, not only a result for social media but a rapid and satisfactory response from the company too.”
