Caerphilly County Borough Council has won an award for its efforts to protect green space.
The local authority won the Landowner of the Year Award at the inaugural Fields in Trust Awards last month for protecting 1,139 acres of green space under the The Queen Elizabeth II Fields Challenge.
Cllr David Poole, cabinet member for community and leisure services, said: “We are immensely proud to have achieved this award. In our borough we are blessed with a beautiful variety of outdoors spaces and we, as a council, are committed to preserving, maintaining and enhancing these spaces for our residents and future generations to enjoy.”
Fields in Trust’s Queen Elizabeth II Fields Challenge is an initiative to mark the Diamond Jubilee and the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. It aims to protect as many outdoor recreational spaces as possible.
Ivor Morgan, chairman of Fields in Trust Cymru, said: “We are so pleased by the commitment of Caerphilly County Borough Council to honouring Her Majesty The Queen’s 60 years on the throne, through the dedication of the greatest number of acres of any other land owner in the United Kingdom.
“The range of benefits that these sites will bring, not just through the enjoyment and wellbeing of the thousands of people who will be getting out on to these Queen Elizabeth II Fields, but also the environmental benefits, so that wildlife and nature can flourish in the county borough, show a fantastic commitment of the Council to outdoor recreational spaces.”
This award does not sit well with Communities in the Borough who in the past have had to resort to Public Enquiries and protests in their commitment to preserving, maintaining and enhancing public spaces for our residents and future generations to enjoy.