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Bratton Fleming has been crowned Devon’s Green Community of the Year by the Community Council of Devon.

The Bratton Fleming Parish Council Community Composting Group handles its community’s garden waste and in return produces free compost and financial donations for residents and other community organisations.

The group has been providing a composting service for more than 15 years and earns money from North Devon District Council for doing so. This money is then returned back to the community – so it really is recycling at its best!

The Green Community of the Year Award is one of just three awards given by The Community Council of Devon, as part of its annual search to find the Devon Community of the Year. Launched in April the competition aims to find Devon groups, towns, villages, or societies that have worked to improve their physical or social environments.

This year’s Green Community award was sponsored by South West Water, and is one of two special categories chosen to represent the more topical issued faced by Society today. The Green category was looking for a community that thinks about its carbon footprint and looks for ways to develop a more sustainable community.

The winning group from Bratton Fleming has composted an impressive 18,000 tonnes of green waste and returned more than £35,000 back to its community in 15 years. These funds have been used to provide its wider community with things such as play equipment, trees, shrubs and allotments.

The Community Composting Group will receive £250 and is now vying for the overall title of Devon Community of the Year where they could win a further £500. Winners of the Devon Community of the Year will be announced on 8 October at the Community Council of Devon’s annual conference being held at Exeter racecourse.

Elaine Cook, chief executive, Community Council of Devon said: “This long established group impressed the judging panel by managing to sustain a simple, but effective local solution, achieving real environmental benefits for their community. The financial contributions they have been able to make to other community groups and projects is inspiring.”