THE winners of Wychavon District Council’s first Intelligently Green Awards have been announced.

At a special ceremony at the Civic Centre in Pershore on Wednesday, July 16, the shortlisted nominees gathered to see who had won the awards, which recognise, celebrate and promote green projects and activities in Wychavon.

There were four categories, energy, construction, food, tourism and green space and transport.

The winners in the energy section were Hill and Moor Parish Council for their street lighting upgrade, which saw the energy costs drop from £1,613 a year to £364.

In construction the winners were Mike Coe for The Autonomous House in Cropthorne.

Mr Coe's aim was to build a house that would make minimal demands on the environment during construction and in use.

For the food, tourism and green space category the successful finalist was Lisa Whelan for Jelly Pickle Jam.

Her business in Evesham harvests fruit that would otherwise go to waste and turns it into jam, pickle or other products.

And in transport it was Alan Miller for the Greening the Vale film that was named the winner.

The film captures what a range of innovative and creative local individuals, groups and businesses are doing to reduce dependency on fossil fuels and the car.

The overall winner was Mr Coe, who said: "I’m very pleased to have won this award. There were times during this project when I was stood on a freezing cold building site covered in dust wondering why I hadn’t just bought a picturesque old vicarage somewhere.

"But we saw the project through to the end and according to the plan and we now have a very, very low energy building."