Wirral Countryside Volunteers win award for work improving borough’s environment

May 27 2009 by Lorna Hughes, Birkenhead News

DEDICATED volunteers have been honoured after 24 years of working to improve Wirral’s environment.

Wirral Countryside Volunteers, which now has 16 members, takes on 30 environmental projects each year at 12 sites.

Their work includes clean-ups, hedge laying and clearing ditches.

For the last 20 years the group has managed Thornton Common in Clatterbridge – registered as a Site of Biological Importance – on behalf of Wirral Council.

Last week the group was awarded a Unilever Dragonfly Award, which is co-ordinated by the Mersey Basin Campaign to recognise volunteers whose dedication has made an impact on environmental improvement projects.

Volunteers say they will spend some of their £1,000 prize money on hiring a tree surgeon to work at Thornton Common.

Paul Loughnane, honorary secretary of the Wirral Countryside Volunteers and a volunteer at New Ferry Butterfly Park, said: “It’s nice to be recognised on a wider level.”