PRIZES were presented yesterday to the winners of The Northern Echo's community environmental competition.

And regional development agency One NorthEast announced its third successive year of sponsorship, allowing Making a Difference to take place next year.

The winners of the competition were the volunteers who run the fundraising recycling scheme at Butterwick Hospice, in Bishop Auckland, County Durham.

Bernard Harrison and Sue Snowden, of the hospice, were presented with £500, awarded by One NorthEast and The Northern Echo, and a trophy made by North Pennines craftsman Philip Bastow.

The presentation was made by North-East environmentalist Professor David Bellamy, who also handed £25 gift vouchers to runners-up Stanley Bowden, a pensioner who plants wildflowers in his local wood at West Cornforth, County Durham, and Tony Lynn, chairman of the Friends of Hazelgrove, an organisation breathing new life into the seafront woodland at Hazelgrove, Saltburn, east Cleveland.

Professor Bellamy praised The Northern Echo for "blowing the trumpet" of the many North-East people who worked to improve their local environment.

He said: "If we are to put this world to rights, people have to do something about it. The winners of Making a Difference are doing just that."

Colin Tapping, deputy editor of The Northern Echo, said: "The competition illustrates that people can make a difference."

Phil Hughes, of One NorthEast, said the organisation was delighted to continue its sponsorship of the competition, saying: "It is good to see individuals playing such a big role in this type of thing."

Bernard Harrison, a volunteer with the recycling scheme, said: "We wish to thank all the people who have supported us."

Tony Lynn said: "We are extremely pleased to have done so well."

And Stanley Bowden said: "I am honoured. I hope that as the years pass the flowers I have planted will come out for the generations which follow."