Green grant winners create new community woodland

Green volunteers in Skelton have been given a boost in their efforts to transform an overgrown piece of land into a community woodland area.

The Skelton Villages Environment Improvement Group beat off competition from across the region to win a £1,895 grant from Northern Gas Networks, the region’s gas pipeline company.

They have used the funding to invest in much-needed tools to help them open up and create new walkways through the woodland area. They are one of 23 groups across the region to share a total prize fund of £60,000 from the Northern Green Networks programme.

Secretary of the Group, Eileen Goodenough said: “Skelton Villages didn’t have any Community Park to enjoy. This natural, but neglected woodland valley, tucked away between houses, was an eyesore, a fly tippers paradise. and a terrible waste of a valuable publicly resource We have already done a lot of work creating access where none previously existed, providing a network of pathways and a new low bridge, but we were desperately in need of tools to open up the woodland and clean out scrubland.”

“Now we can really start to make a difference. We hope to make the area a lot more accessible so that it can be enjoyed by all the local community.”

Presenting the winners trophy from Northern Gas Networks, Deborah Yewdall praised the group’s hard work saying: “Northern Green Networks was designed to support local community groups who are getting out there and making a difference to their environment, and this is especially true of the Skelton Villages Environment Improvement Group.

“They are doing a great job carrying out environmental improvements to ensure that local people can start to enjoy what has previously been a negected area.”