Tarmac employees receiving top honors at the MPA Restoration and Biodiversity Awards
The awards, which recognise achievement in restoration and biodiversity, are given to a range of industries and partner organisations to celebrate best practice.
Vaughan Gray, a foreman at Halecombe Quarry in Somerset, received an individual biodiversity contribution award. The special award celebrates Vaughan’s 27-year career at the company and was awarded to him for his “remarkable enthusiasm and commitment to biodiversity and the local community.” One example of his contribution to the community is his volunteering with Leigh-on-Mendip First School, something he has done for almost three decades.
This was not the first time a Tarmac employee receives this recognition at the MPA awards. In 2017, Michael Cardus, manager of Tarmac’s Dry Rigg Quarry, won the biodiversity individual contribution award, and also won the photography competition for his image of sand martins, for which he received the Butterfield Trophy from television presenter Sybil Ruscoe.
In 2015, Chris Pennock received this recognition for his outstanding commitment to biodiversity management and habitat enhancement at Nosterfield quarry. Chris deserves special credit for his efforts to establish the black poplar at Nosterfield. After discovering one large specimen on-site, he became aware of its rarity, with only two others known to be growing in North Yorkshire. He grew and nurtured cuttings of the male variety but then managed to source female cuttings and is now growing on seeds from them at home.