THE judges were overwhelmed at the spirit shown by Mike Hardy and Bill Magee who carried on battling the might of the British legal system to protect part of their community’s heritage when most would have given up long ago – and they did it while both suffering from cancer.
They have saved a well-known and much-loved area of community land in Edgerton called Clayton Fields from developers and, thanks to them, it now has village green status.
This battle took them 16 years of hard work along with a grim determination and not a little amount of courage to win – and at times it must have seemed that eventual victory was against all odds.
Clayton Fields Action Group has now grown to 400 members and they host big community events on the fields.
They said: “We never envisaged this kind of thing. We were so shocked when we received the phone call from the Examiner.
“There is enormous pride in us receiving this award tonight in recognition of the hard work that has gone into saving Clayton Fields.
“Lots of people have commented on how safe they feel now to go walking around the area.
Bill said: “We have even had some campers down here and when they were told that we didn’t object but they must tidy up after themselves they definitely agreed.”
l The other nominees in this category, sponsored by David Brown, were Bradley TRA and The Motherhub.
