South Hams community heroes recognised with awards

Organisations and individuals doing stand-out work in their local communities in south Devon have been recognised with a series of awards.

The South Hams Community Awards – now in its second year – aims to highlight outstanding examples of community involvement.

This year’s winners include Valerie Stevens from East Allington, who collected the Community Champion Award for a lifetime helping the village football club, school and church.

The organiser of “Dad Fest” – the Dads Network – picked up the Community Organisation of the Year Award, for its work with families, both locally and nationally.

Two winners were announced for the Climate and Biodiversity Champion award.

Peter Brown was recognised for bringing people together to address local climate issues in and around Newton and Noss.

Ross Kennerly of Sustainable South Brent won the award for his work on Hope Wood, a project to plant a new woodland in South Brent.

Kai and Willow Wakeling were also recognised as joint winners of the Under 18s Community Award, for helping to keep the Kingston playing fields in Kingsbridge clean and tidy.

Chairman of South Hams District Council, councillor Bernard Taylor, said: “It is so important that we recognise those who work hard for our communities.

“We had an overwhelming number of nominations this year, which is testament to the amazing work our people and organisations do across the South Hams – congratulations to all of our winners.”