ECOLOGIST Dr David Bellamy visited a community project to present the prizes for The Northern Echo’s environmental competition Making a Difference.

Now in its tenth year, and sponsored by regional development agency One NorthEast, Making a Difference showcases volunteers who are improving the region’s environment.

The winner was Steven Fox, 38, of Esh Winning, County Durham, who won the prize for a decade of work creating a sensory garden.

The garden is at the Broadgate Farm Co-operative, near Esh Winning, where the presentation took place.

The joint runners-up were: ● The Park East Community Garden, a link-up between residents and the local primary school on the Skerne Park Estate, in Darlington, who have created a vegetable and flower garden to promote healthy eating; ● West Rainton Green Group, whose activities include running a green market, promoting footpaths and staging tidy-ups.

Dr Bellamy said communities were increasingly becoming involved in improving the areas where they lived.

He said: “Governments are realising they need communities behind them. People are recognising that they are part of the solution to the problems.”

Mr Fox took on an area of wasteland and transformed it into a wildlife-rich garden with ponds, walkways and quiet areas.

He said: “It has taken me ten years, but I knew what I wanted to do with the site the moment I saw it.