The builders of an eco-loo in Northampton and volunteers from Bristol who restored a 200 year old stone lined pond are just two of five national award winners in this year’s CSV Action Earth, supported by Morrisons supermarket.

CSV Action Earth helps people across England and Wales to become volunteers and improve the environment in which they live and work. Over a thousand projects took part in the environmental volunteering campaign and five have been awarded a £300 cash prize each to help fund future projects. Runners up in each category have been awarded a £100 cash prize.

The CSV Action Earth 2007 winners are:

Volunteers at South Court Environmental in Northampton built a compost toilet for female visitors to a permaculture garden to win the ‘Wackiest Project’ award. The toilet separates liquid and solid waste into different containers and will eventually be used as compost for the garden.

Volunteers who restored an overgrown 200 year-old stone lined pond hidden in the slopes of North Somerset’s Cadbury Hill, have won the ‘Transformation Project’ category. The excavation, surveying, removal and replanting of existing foliage was carried out by volunteers from Yatton and Congresbury Wildlife Action Group based in Bristol. The volunteers now plan to start restoring the lining and working towards a natural filled pond.

Parents and children from Leeds took top spot in the ‘City Slickers’  category for transforming a disused piece of land at Leeds Thomas Danby crèche centre into a colourful outdoor play area.

Volunteers from the 4th Goring Guides in Worthing planted thirty tree saplings as well as a hedge at a one acre conservation campsite and education centre – earning them the top prize in the ‘Best Green Welly’ category.

The ‘Animal Madness’ top prize went to children at Ysgol Llangynfelyn school in Powys for transforming their overgrown and vandalised pond into a magnet for frogs and other wildlife. Plans are underway to add water snails, newts and tadpoles in the spring.

Mike Williams, Director of CSV Environment says: “Environmental concerns are becoming more important to people but some feel that they are powerless to improve things. Volunteering with CSV Action Earth demonstrates the positive impact that we can all have on the local environment.”

Gillian Hall, Customer Services Director, Morrisons says: “We are pleased that the sponsorship we have given to CSV has helped to kick-start so many excellent community environmental projects. Action Earth is a fantastic programme that makes a real impact in helping to improve local environments.”

To find out more about CSV Action Earth visit www.csv.org.uk/actionearth

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For further information contact: CSV Press Office: Paul Donohoe 020 7812 0337 / 07779 624 385 / pdonohoe@csv.org.uk or Jason Tanner 020 7812 0038 / jtanner@csv.org.uk

Notes for Editors

1. CSV (Community Service Volunteers) creates opportunities for people to take an active part in the life of their communities through volunteering, training and community action. Each year 227,000 people give 5 million hours of their time as volunteers through CSV. CSV trains 12,705 people of all ages. www.csv.org.uk

2. About Morrisons: freshness service and value. We are the UK’s fourth largest food retailer with 370 stores. Our business is mainly food and grocery – the weekly shop. Uniquely we source and process most of the fresh food that we sell though our own manufacturing facilities, giving us close control over provenance and quality; and we have more people preparing more food in store than any other retailer. Every week nine million customers pass through our doors and 114,000 colleagues across the business work hard each day to deliver great service to them. With competitive prices and hundreds of special offers, we are proud to save our customers money every day.