Delighted to announce that Whittington achieved a Silver Gilt award at the HEiB awards ceremony at Burton Brewery Centre yesterday. We can all be pretty happy and proud of that achievement which recognises the great work that already goes on in the villages to enhance our environment from both a wildlife and aesthetic point of view.
In addition resident Irene Rushton, supported by husband Mark, received one of the small number of special awards – in this case chosen by the Chairman of the Heart of England region – recognising outstanding horticultural achievement for their fantastic work in creating and sustaining the wonderful garden at Middleton Bridge for well over a decade. They, and Irene in particular, are to be thoroughly congratulated for such an amazing achievement!
We were given relatively detailed feedback and there are no great surprises in it.
There is much very welcome recognition of the work that has gone on and good pointers to what we would need to do to raise our game and reach the gold standard.
It's very gratifying that we were so highly marked on Environmental Improvement and Community Involvement – achieving Gold standard on both of those.
In relation to areas for improvement some of it is presentational – points (like non use of peat) that we do but didn't’t mention in our presentation, but much is more substantive – gutter weeds, and village entrances for example.
WFEG's Mike Kinghan commented: "This isn’t the time to set out detailed thoughts on next steps – but I am thinking that an ‘improvement plan’ setting out our collective horticultural and environmental plans for the next year and beyond – could be a way forward if time and energy can be found to prepare it."
"WFEG and the Parish Council have jointly led this year’s efforts but many other organisations and individuals have participated and supported in their various ways – we are lucky to have such positive cross-organisational mutual support in this parish. Over the coming months we should look to build on this partnership. Hopefully the success that we have had from a standing start this February will inspire many members of our community to help look after and enhance our environmental assets even more!"
