Celebrating community action and volunteering

To mark 15 years of the Living Countryside Awards we’ve given the categories a refresh to reflect what is important to people in 2023. 

In recent years CPRE Bedfordshire has changed the way we work so that we’re more focused on enabling local action groups to run their own campaigns and organise events like peaceful protest walks. We’ve also seen more community-based projects entering the Living Countryside Awards. They’ve been bringing new life to forgotten corners and helping to tackle mental and physical health issues in outdoor settings.

We wanted a category that would put the spotlight on these kinds of projects and groups, so we created the grassroots and green shoots award.

Grassroots and green shoots

Our new category celebrates community action and volunteering. It recognises community groups and projects that are making a difference to the natural environment and the community in which they are based.

What might entries look like?

• Community responses to Climate Emergency
• Local Action Groups standing up for the countryside
• Community led projects that benefit the environment and people
• Regenerating health and wellbeing projects that use the countryside or urban green spaces
• Projects that improve access to the countryside

Three great examples

Although the categories were different for the 2021 awards, many of the projects that were shortlisted would have fitted well into our new category.

The Abbey Fields Roundabout Group were the winners of the Better Places to Live category. They replanted and took on the care of all five roundabouts on the Abbey Fields estate in Elstow, planting shrubs, trees and flowers. The group also created a picnic area on the Abbey Fields Moor, with picnic tables, a planter box and trees providing a place for people to rest when walking on the Moor.

Edible High Town is a group of local residents who have helped transform six bits of disused land to create edible pocket gardens or raised beds around the High Town area. They help look after a community orchard in People’s Park, grow vegetables and fruit in their community garden, have a pumpkin patch and work with local charity NOAH to support their gardening classes in the raised beds they manage. Edible High Town have taken pieces of land that have often been sites of fly-tipping or misuse and made them places that the community can work together and congregate to share growing skills and learn from each other. They have also helped support other local initiatives that are starting up around Luton and helped form the loose network of food growing projects across Luton called ‘Edible Luton’. The project was highly commended in both our 2018 and 2021 awards.

Edible High Town have written a blog post for us about regenerating urban spaces in Luton.

Houghton Hall Park Kitchen Garden Volunteers brings together a host of varied members of the community. The produce and flowers that are sold provide healthy and sustainable options for the community, and all the profits from sales are ploughed back into the project. This is a holistic way to engage with nature and help with the issues of mental health, food poverty and healthy choices at the same time. The work that the volunteers produce is also a draw for the public, who often visit the park just to see the latest display.

Get involved

If you know of a project that fits the bill, then do encourage them to apply – or apply on their behalf!

There’s lots of information about the application process on the 2023 awards page.