Charity Honours For Rural Community Groups And Businesses Across Sussex

Children in four primary school gardening clubs, rural shopkeepers and community wildlife charities were among Sussex organisations winning awards last night (October 14) from the county's branch of countryside charity CPRE.

The prizes were intended to honour people and groups who've contributed towards rural life, especially in conservation, community and biodiversity.

According to CPRE (formerly known as the Campaign to Preserve Rural England), their judges selected groups or people across three categories:

• 'Empowering Communities'; recognizing individuals who make an outstanding contribution towards conservation, biodiversity or climate change,
• 'Connecting People and the Countryside'; recognizing community groups, local enterprises and schools whose projects and initiatives contribute to enhancing and protecting the countryside and encourage engagement with the natural world, and
• 'Promoting Nature and the Countryside'; recognizing community groups and enterprises with inspiring projects and initiatives that contribute towards a sustainable rural community and thriving countryside.

Among other winners, the awards' organisers high-lit the story of Fittleworth Community Shop, a Gold award recipient.

They said:

"Nearly a decade ago the people of Fittleworth, near Petworth, lost their village shop.

"But they missed it so much that five years later they launched an ambitious plan to build another.

"The whole community united to raise £400,000 to create not just a shop, but a community hub, café and children’s playground.

"Fittleworth Stores, which opened in 2018, is now a thriving small business, attracting enough trade to put it into the UK’s top 4% of community shops by turnover.

"Last year it was able to add a new post office, along with an annual grant of £5,000 in recognition of the role it plays in the local community."

In Lewes, a silver award went to the Railway Land Trust, about which CPRE staff said:

"The Lewes based Railway Land Wildlife Trust developed a brand new one-off initiative which it hopes will change the way hundreds of children view their immediate environment.

The Trust’s ‘Schools Outreach Project’, which ran for six months, created a series of wildlife sessions which tapped into the school curriculum to explore wildlife within the grounds of local schools.

"The hour long activities included looking at habitats for Science, collecting data for Maths and hunting for stories for Literacy.

"The sessions were designed to overcome the issues with transport, staffing levels and cost usually incurred by school trips.

"The Trust’s experts travelled to each school to show the children how to discover nature on their own doorstep without the need to travel.

"During the six months the project was running, the Trust worked with more than 300 children in a variety of outdoor spaces."

Here are the prize-winners from the ceremony on Wednesday night (October 14):

• Connecting People & the Countryside
  • GOLD
    • The EYE (Eco, Young & Engaged) Project
    • Fittleworth Community Shop
    • Ninfield Village Stores & Post Office
    • South Downs National Park Authority Farm Groups Meet the Farmer Project
  • SILVER
    • Cradle Hill Community Primary School Garden Club
    • Beechtobeach Community Films
    • Brighton & Hove Green Spaces Forum
    • High Weald Hero Primary School Education Programme
    • Hope Springs Chairs Chair Making Courses
    • Petworth CofE Primary School Eco Warriors
    • Railway Land Wildlife Trust Outreach Environmental Education Learning for Schools 
    • South East Climate Alliance (SECA)
    • The Secret Campsite
    • The Sussex Peasant
  • BRONZE
    • Worthing Museum & Art Gallery - Archaeology Walk Programme
    • Worthing Climate Action Network's Zero 2030 Community-led Climate Conference
    • Horam Manor Farm
• The Award for Promoting Nature & the Countryside
  • GOLD
    • Ecological Land Cooperative's new farms at Arlington, East Sussex
    • Sussex Green Living Network
  • SILVER
    • High Weald AONB Housing Design Guide
    • Holbrook Primary School Eco School and Gardening Club
    • Spithurst Hub
    • The Sussex Flow Initiative Natural Flood Management Project
  • BRONZE
    • Steyning for Trees
• The Peter Brandon Awards, "Empower Communities"
  • THE THREE FINALISTS
    • Phil Belden, Conservation & Environmental Champion
    • Ben Cross of Crosslands Flower Nursery
    • Isabel Tree: Rewilding and Conservation Projects