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Newport Rivers short listed for Community Action Awards

28 May 2010

Newport Rivers short listed for Community Action Awards 2010

The Newport Rivers Group has been short listed in the Isle of Wight Rural Community Council (IWRCC) Community Action Awards for its work on improving and enhancing Pan Mill Meadows, a small parcel of riverside land south of St George’s Bridge. Newport Rivers is one of only three projects to be short listed in the Environment Category.

Pan Mill Meadows was purchased Island 2000 on behalf of the Newport Rivers Group and at the time, this riverside wetland had become a magnet for anti-social behaviour and its fen meadow was an enormous litter-filled bramble patch.


Image: Judges at Pan Mill Meadows

Ian Boyd of Natural Enterprise said “It’s amazing what can be achieved when people work together and our thanks go out to the Newport Rivers Group, Hampshire and IW Wildlife Trust (HIWWT) and Green Gym whose volunteers worked together to clear the site of bramble, replace fences and carry out essential tree work.”

He continued “Pan Mill Meadows is now an amazing place. A green pocket of natural beauty bang in the middle of Newport and edged by car parks and development. It is quite simply a fantastic example of the difference the work of local partnerships and volunteers can make to a community and to wildlife.”

The Newport Rivers Group now continues to manage Pan Mill Meadows for its habitats, its species, its water quality and its flood defence capacity through an annual programme of conservation management delivered by the excellent Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust and with the continued help of the Green Gym volunteers.

The results of the Awards will be announced by the RCC at the Riverside Centre on 24th June.

Newport Rivers is one of the projects delivered by Natural Enterprise.
For more information contact Claire Hector on 01983 535882 or email claire.hector@naturalenterprise.co.uk