Pengwern nature project lands top award

* Winners of the tenants awards line up.

A nature project in Llangollen has scooped one of the top honours in the first ever Denbighshire Housing Tenants Awards.

During a ceremony in Rhyl this week Friends of Pengwern won the Community Project of the Year award.

Working with the Nature for Health project, the group have helped improve the local, natural environment. 

Their winning citation says their work has made a real difference in their community, bringing people together to look after their local and natural environment, while encouraging others to take a pride in their area. 

Project activities include dry stone walling, community woodland and willow weaving. The group are now leading on this and working with the Woodland Trust.

A host of tenants from across the county were honoured for their achievements at the inaugural awards arranged by Denbighshire Housing and held at the 1891 restaurant in Rhyl.

Winners in the other seven categories were:

* Communal Garden of the Year award: Trem Y Foel Residents Association, Ruthin.

* Tenant Garden of the Year award: Angela Carrington-Roberts.

* Housing Resident/Community Group of the Year award:  The Marsh Community Association, Rhyl. 

* Denbighshire Housing Customer Service of the Year award: Shirley Rippingale. 

* Tenant of the Year award: Stuart Nield-Siddall of Rhyl.

* Young Tenant of the Year award: Bethan Owen of Rhyl. 

* Denbighshire Housing Award: Gina Jones, chairperson of the Marsh Residents Association.

Jamie Groves, Denbighshire’s Head of Facilities, Assets and Housing, said: “We were honoured to host the first ever award ceremony, to recognise and celebrate the achievements of our tenants. The panel was delighted at the quality of the applications which showed the vast amount of good work going on in communities county-wide.

“There are some great examples here of tenants making great efforts to look after their properties, as well as some exemplar community projects that help improve the life of residents living in their community. Their hard work, commitment, drive  and amazing efforts help the housing team to provide a great service to tenants."

Geoff Davies Lead Officer for Community Housing told the packed audience about the vision for Denbighshire Housing is to invest in council homes and neighbourhoods to the highest standards, working with tenants to agree priorities but recognising that people then make communities great places in which to live.

The evening’s main sponsors were Roger W Jones, Rhyl & Jewson. The other sponsors were Alliance Leisure, Hags,  Liberty Gas,  AICO,  SC2,  G Parry Home Improvements,  Capita One, Greenspace team, Denbighshire Housing, Torus; Sherratt a Howdens.

During the ceremony, there was a performance from Côr Sain y Sir. The choir is made up of Denbighshire County Council staff.