I was delighted to have been able to attend the Groundwork Environment Awards last night in Bolton.

I was there mainly as Chair of Prestwich Area Partnership, we were a finalist for a community award because of the success of the Love Prestwich campaign and The Big Clean.

Sadly we didn’t win- so my oscar style gushing acceptance speech remains unused for another year, however it was a tremendous evening. It was fascinating to see so many wonderful projects across the public, private and voluntary sectors highlighted and showing what can be done to improve our environment and work towards a more sustainable future.

It was also great to see Prestwich so well represented. The community category that the Area Partnership was a finalist in had no less than two other Prestwich finalists – the Rainsough Charitable Trust, who were commended for their tremendous work of improvements at Rainsough cemetery and Rooden Court Action group for their community garden and landscaping work.

It goes to show what a vibrant community we have in Prestwich. 

So congratulations to those groups and all the other finalists last night and especially the winners.