Keep Scotland Beautiful Announces 2016 Local Environmental Quality Award Winners

Environmental charity, Keep Scotland Beautiful, has revealed that four organisations from across country have received a prestigious Local Environmental Quality Award in recognition of their efforts to improve Scotland’s environment.

The annual awards, now in their 11th year, took place in Glasgow earlier this week (Tuesday 15 March) and celebrated successes from across the Keep Scotland Beautiful, Local Environmental Quality Network (The LEQ Network), which aims to improve the cleanliness and quality of the environment on publicly accessible land in Scotland.

The 2016 awards winners were:

• Programme Manager of the Year – Marion Summers, Community Safety Glasgow

• Community Participation Award – South Ayrshire Council

• Local Environmental Quality Award – City of Edinburgh Council

• Programme of the Year – ng homes

All entries excelled in delivering significant improvements to local environmental quality, engaging the wider community and networks in order to deliver environmental enhancements and undertaking targeted and innovative action to improve their local area.

Images of the winners receiving their awards can be accessed here, with captions here and further information on the winning entries here.

Derek Robertson, Chief Executive of Keep Scotland Beautiful, said: “It gives me great pleasure to extend my warmest congratulations to this year’s LEQ Award winners. Local authorities and duty bodies from across Scotland are working hard to improve local environmental quality and today’s winners demonstrate the unique approaches which are being development in order to allow us to address specific environmental problems.

“Poor local environmental quality can have a significant impact upon health and well-being in local communities. At Scotland’s Local Environmental Quality Conference on 15 March we launched a report highlighting that Scotland’s local environmental quality is in decline.  However, programmes undertaken by the LEQ Network help to improve local places for people, create further community cohesion and build more civic pride Scotland-wide.”

The awards ceremony marked the closing of the LEQ Network annual conference, and highlighted the outstanding work that has been carried out over the past year by Local Environmental Quality Network members.

Membership of the Network is open to all environment improvement professionals, many of them employed by Scotland’s major land managers, including local authorities and private sector organisations. The Network aims to ensure the sharing of best practise amongst those responsible for maintaining Scotland’s open spaces.