Community projects in Bedford Borough have been among the winners at this year’s CPRE Living Countryside Awards.
The Abbey Fields Roundabout Group and Riverside Dairy shared the honours with Houghton Hall Park Kitchen Garden and Treewell Community Farm in Moggerhanger at the annual countryside charity’s awards.
The charity said: “A huge variety of projects from across Bedfordshire entered the awards and the judges faced a difficult but rewarding task.”
Abbey Fields Roundabout Group in Elstow were winners in the Better Places to Live category.
The community group was set up five years ago by local resident Helen Bennett. She had got fed up of walking past the neglected dead brown bushes on the roundabout on Waltham Drive and thought: “I’ve had enough of this”.
So, she took a garden fork and wheelbarrow and set about digging them out.
Surveying her handy work, she noted how bare they looked and decided they needed re-planting.
The council gave the go-ahead, so she assembled a team and the roundabout refurbishment went on from there.
The group tried to make a difference during the pandemic by showing the community hope and care. They replanted and looked after all five roundabouts on the Abbey Fields estate, planting shrubs trees and flowers.
Read: Abbey Fields Roundabout Group need your votes for Living Countryside Awards
Judges praised the community’s engagement with the project and the different themes on the roundabouts. Recently, the group created a place for walkers to rest on Abbey Feld Moor, including a picnic are with tables, a planter box and trees.
One volunteer said: “People are constantly commenting on how lovely they are and how happy it makes them feel.” She also said volunteering was “much cheaper than a gym membership” for keeping fit.
Riverside Dairy in Carlton – known for its amazing ice cream – scooped CPRE’s Made in Bedfordshire award.
Situated along the banks of the River Great Ouse, production at the Riverside Dairy started in May 2020. Despite Covid, the business has gone from strength to strength, and they now have 25 wholesale customers.
They’ve also been able to engage with the community and teach them about what they do on the family-run farm.
The Dairy’s ethos is to produce healthy milk from grass and make sure they’re not damaging the environment.
“Customers and judges alike, loved that the ice cream is made on-site – almost as much as they love the taste,” said a CPRE spokesperson.
The judges particularly praised the dairy’s shift to a more sustainable way of farming and how customers are made aware of food provenance, food miles, and standards.
Milk is produced by the herd of cross-bred Jersey and Friesian cows who can be seen by visitors, meaning they can enjoy the artisan ices and see where they’ve come from.
CPRE, also known as ‘The countryside charity’, advocate nationally for a countryside with sustainable, healthy communities that is available to all.
Previously known as ‘The Campaign to Protect Rural England’, the charity has actively supported and promoted the countryside for almost a century. They have a branch in every county and advocate for a countryside with sustainable, healthy communities that is available to all.
