An exhibition showcasing 30 years of the Environment Awards has started its tour of County Durham.
This year marks the 30th birthday of the County Durham Environment Awards and to celebrate, previous winners and judges joined the Mayor of Bishop Auckland, Cllr Joy Allen, for a preview of the exhibition at Bishop Auckland Town Hall last week.
The awards are organised each year by Durham County Council on behalf of the County Durham Environment Partnership with the aim of celebrating organisations and communities which improve the natural and built environment locally.
The exhibition showcases images and stories from the past 30 years and includes videos of personal thoughts and memories of the awards from some of those involved across the decades.
Steve Bhowmick, environment and design manager at Durham County Council, said: “We wanted to do something special to mark such a wonderful milestone and what better way than to look back over the history of the awards.
“We hope that by touring the county, previous winners from across County Durham will be able to visit, reminisce and see how the awards evolved across three decades.”
The exhibition, can be seen between the following dates at the following places:
• Wednesday, 31 July to Thursday, 29 August – Bishop Auckland Town Hall
• Tuesday, 3 September to Tuesday, 10 September – The Witham, Barnard Castle
• Tuesday, 1 October to Monday, 21 October – Hardwick Hall Visitor Centre
Previous green achievers will join this year’s nominees at the awards ceremony at Hardwick Hall Hotel in Sedgefield on Wednesday 23 October. The touring exhibition will be present for ceremony attendees to view.
People are being invited to share their memories of the awards past and present on social media via the hashtag #EnvAwards30.