SWINDON Lions Club presented the 18th Swindon Scout Group with an early Christmas present – a Community Service Award for all their hard work during 2015.

This is the fourth year in a row that the group has received the award alongside a cheque for £100, both of which were presented by Maurice Watson of the Swindon branch of the Lions Club for all the work undertaken at the Lethbridge School wood area during the summer.

“All sections were involved in helping to develop the ‘forest area’ of Lethbridge School grounds and they completed a number of tasks agreed by the school in advance, said group scout leader Phil Clarke.

“These included clearing out and collecting around six bags or rubbish from the bottom of a slope which had been used as a tip. as well as miscellaneous items of furniture and some rotten wood pallets which the scouts used to build five- and six-storey bug hotels.

“Our younger members really enjoyed building these with a little help. They became known as Bugkingham Palace and Webborn Abbey,” said Mr Clarke.

The scouts also got out the paintbrushes to paint over a large wall that had been covered in graffiti as well as tree trimming for low lying branches, and clearance of stinging nettles and thistles in the main forest area.

“A large section of wild grass was cleared and dug and wild flower seeds mixed with compost and watered in,” said Mr Clarke.

“The weeds will regrow, along with wild flowers and hopefully will provide a wild but pretty area.

“The scouts did a great job and the school teachers were very pleased with the results when they arrived back after the weekend.”

In previous years awards were made to the scouts for equally substantial efforts in the community. They were:

2012 – Jubilee Wood Tree Planting – in excess of 1,000 trees were planted by the Group;

2013 – Radnor Street Tidy up – this Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) recognised cemetery in Swindon with 103 military headstones was badly overgrown and in need of attention. Large amounts of bush were cleared, headstones weeded, and rubbish collected up;

2014 – Old Town Clean up – the 18th joined the Piper’s Way Association and cleared a lot of ground in Old Town, digging flower beds and planting a large number of daffodils and tulips .