We had a lovely morning at the Bristol Beacon. It was great celebrating and connecting with all the amazing park volunteers from across Bristol and Bath. With over 100 of you in attendance, it really was a joyous celebration. Thank you to everyone who came along, who nominated, and to all the park volunteers across our two cities for your amazing work. We can't wait to see more of what you do to support our local parks and green spaces.

"Our volunteers are the lifeblood of our parks. We need them to be a voice for our parks ... they are able to grow capacity and agency, and a sense of belonging for people in their communities to make great stuff happen..." - Bristol Councellor Ellie King

"They are making those places accessible and better ... I'm grateful to them, really grateful to them, because in adversarial circumstances where we haven't got that funding, at least the volunteers are making it happen." - BANES Councellor Dr Bharat Pankhania

Judy Gowenlock, who organised the celebration said:
"The awards are about celebrating all that volunteers do, across our cities, for their parks and green spaces. Many residents of all ages and backgrounds give up their free time to make our parks and green spaces more welcoming places to be, places which benefit our health and places which support nature. It has been inspiring and heartwarming to read the nominations for all the individuals and groups and I would like to say a big thank you to them for all that they do. We finally wanted to say a huge thanks to Hargreaves Lansdown for sponsoring the awards.”