Environmental champions honoured

Volunteer residents and children were honoured for their environmental feats at the 2010 Let’s FACE it! Evening of Celebration at The Hawth last night (Monday October 25).

More than 300 Let’s FACE it! projects have been undertaken since the campaign’s launch in 2005.

The awards ceremony also gave the town another opportunity to celebrate its fantastic successes in the Britain in Bloom and South and South East in Bloom competitions this year.

Britain in Bloom Awards included:

• Category winner and silver gilt for large town/small city

• Let’s FACE it! was crowned the best community project in the entire country when it picked up the Britain in Bloom Community Award

• Residents of Bolney Court, in Bewbush, gained UK-wide recognition when they were awarded an It’s Your neighbourhood National Certificate of Distinction – a terrific achievement for them and for Crawley.

South and South East in Bloom Awards included:

• Gold and category winner prizes for the large town/small city category

• Crawley won a discretionary award for community projects

• Sussex Life magazine awarded the town for having the highest scoring entry in Sussex

• The town was recognised as having increased the number of overall neighbourhood entries

• We were also awarded plants from Ferring Nurseries

• Tony Massimo was awarded a discretionary award for his outstanding contribution with his allotment at Malthouse Road, Southgate.

Councillor Lenny Walker, Cabinet member for Leisure and Cultural Services, said: “We are not just the jewel in the crown regionally but we are now the jewel in the crown nationally.”

Let’s FACE it! is all about local people improving the areas in which they live. FACE stands for “Focused Action for Crawley’s Environment” and is open to anyone who cares about the town.

By working together, the community and Crawley Council have made huge improvements to areas of the town that needed a bit of extra care and attention.

Let’s FACE it! activities have included:

• Cleaning up litter, graffiti and eyesores

• Improving the way neighbourhoods look

• New recycling ideas

• Gardening and nature conservation

• Community events organised by groups such as Friends of Goffs Park, Three Bridges Forum and local residents’ associations

• Fundraising.

The 2010 Let’s FACE it! Awards saw images of different projects from every neighbourhood in the town shown on a large screen, before overall winners were presented with prizes.

Since 2005, more than 1,300 volunteers have given almost 5,000 hours to help improve Crawley’s environment.

Let’s FACE it! is about the community working together to improve the local environment by complementing the cleaner, greener and safer priorities of the council.

In addition to the main awards 13 Britain in Bloom It’s Your Neighbourhood Awards, 10 South and South East in Bloom Certificates of Excellence and eight South and South East in Bloom school awards were given out.

Tony Massimo, who won the Gardener of the Year Award with his partner Mary Cook, also received a South and South East in Bloom Outstanding Achievement Award for his allotment in Malthouse Road, Southgate, and Garden News magazine’s Vegetable Plot of the Year. On their tour of the town in August, Britain in Bloom judges described the allotment as ‘the best they had ever seen’.

Main sponsor Ferring Nurseries provided all of the plants on stage.

Award winners
Geoff Simmons Award
Dave White

Let’s FACE it! Awards
Jayne Simpson
The Twitten, West Green
St Andrew’s Church, Furnace Green
Zari, Ifield

Let’s FACE it! Gardeners of the Year 2010
Tony Massimo and Mary Cook

Let’s FACE it! Outstanding Achievement Award 2010
Ben Anderson

Let’s FACE it! Best Business Award
County Mall
Ginger Moo Gallery

Let’s FACE it! Best Community Group
7th Crawley Beavers

Let’s FACE it! Best School Award
Desmond Anderson Primary School