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SOUTH YORKSHIRE AIR QUALITY CHAMPIONS CELEBRATE SUCCESS AT AWARDS CEREMONY
June 2009
People in South Yorkshire who are switched on to the environmental agenda collected gongs last night at the Care4Air Awards. The ceremony is held each year by South Yorkshire’s air quality awareness campaign, Care4Air, to recognise individuals and organisations who have made a significant contribution to improving the region’s air quality.
Over 30 nominees were shortlisted this year across five award categories: Individual; Community; Education; Business; and Outstanding Contribution to Improving Air Quality. To ensure the night ran smoothly ITV’s Calendar weatherman, Jon Mitchell, made a guest appearance to compere the event and presented the awards to the winners.
In the Individual Award category, Fred Priestley, 90, danced away with the top award to celebrate his inspirational and committed use of public transport. For the past 16 years, Fred has travelled three times a week from his home in Stradbroke, Sheffield to Parklands Ballroom in Doncaster via bus, train and on foot, rather than using the car.
Sheffield-based company, Chesterfield Special Cylinders, won the Business Award for their development of compressed biomethane – a fuel that has no negative effects on the environment. The fuel is suitable for running public service vehicles, coaches, taxis, passenger cars and even trains. Using this green alternative fuel leads to dramatic reductions in CO2 emissions, Nitrous Oxide and dangerous particulate matter.
In the closest fought category of the night, the Community Award went to Bikeability Barnsley for their week-long courses which train primary school children to cycle to school. Bikeability aim to get people out of cars and onto their bikes, thus reducing harmful vehicle emissions and keeping themselves and the environment healthy. Last year they visited 51 schools and trained almost 1000 children across Barnsley.
The runner-up prize for went to Heeley City Farm for promoting and spearheading local environmental education, creating community green spaces, planting scores of trees and distributing over ten thousand low energy light bulbs to the community – all from their sustainable offices. Recently they opened the South Yorkshire Energy Centre in an eco-refurbished terraced house to demonstrate how people can get an old house to perform as efficiently as a new one and how to take a 'green view' of everything you do when building.
Brinsworth Comprehensive School in Rotherham won the Education Award. They recently fitted solar panels to school buildings, and have been monitoring diffusion tubes and analysing air quality data. Brinsworth Comprehensive recently hosted a Carbon Challenge Roadshow where students audited the school’s energy usage and developed ideas on how to cut emissions. The school also built a ‘biozone’ where they study wildlife so they do not need to transport students around the area on bus to visit such areas.
The most prestigious prize of the evening for Outstanding Contribution to Improving Air Quality went to Sheffield winner, Neil Parry, Project Co-ordinator from the East End Quality of Life Initiative. Neil was chosen for his dedicated work monitoring air quality, a task he first began in Tinsley 11 years ago. He is credited with pioneering community air quality testing across the whole city.
Mark Daly, Care4Air spokesperson said: “The winners’ commitment to air quality issues is second to none. Their work will benefit the whole of South Yorkshire and I hope that others are inspired to take action after hearing about them. It was a wonderful evening and I am thrilled that we have been able to give all the winners the recognition they deserve for their contribution towards improving local air quality.”
For a full list of winners visit http://www.care4air.org/c4a_awards.html