At Sustainable St Albans, we are delighted that one of our longest serving trustees, Lesley Flowers, has received an Award of Merit from Harpenden Town Council in recognition of her “work for Sustainable St Albans and other local sustainability initiatives”. The award was presented by the Mayor, Councillor Fiona Gaskell, at the Annual Town Meeting on 13th May at Harpenden’s Park Hall. Lesley received her award cheered on by her husband and many of the volunteers with whom she has worked over the years.
It is hard to capture everything that Lesley has done for sustainability in the last decade alone and continues to do every day. Her tireless efforts have made a difference across the whole of St Albans district and nationally. As a resident of Harpenden for nearly 20 years, it is inevitable that the biggest beneficiary has been the town where she lives. Below we highlight just some of the work for which she has been recognised with this award.
Trustee of Sustainable St Albans
Lesley was part of Transition St Albans and helped its evolution from community group to the charity of Sustainable St Albans that we know today. She has always taken a hands-on and personal approach to the project that she leads. These projects are making a real difference to climate change and the local community. She is an ideas-generator, launching and running many projects single-handedly. At the same time, she is a key team player, involved in flagship sustainability projects over the years like Sustainable St Albans Week (now the Sustainability Festival) She was integral to the charity winning a number of awards, including the inaugural Hertfordshire Sustainability Forum Award in 2019.
Our Planet Our Future
She co-launched and jointly runs the “Our Planet Our Future” series of public talks and discussion events in Harpenden, which cover a variety of environmental and sustainability issues. This series began with a ‘Ted-talk’ style event at Rothamsted Research in 2018, and now sessions are held bi-monthly at the Plough and Harrow in Southdown.
Harpenden Sustainability Market
Lesley co-founded and leads the Harpenden Sustainability Market, which has been running successfully in Harpenden since 2021, in partnership with Harpenden Town Council.
Playing Out and Our Street Party
Lesley spent many years establishing Playing Out St Albans District, encouraging and empowering residents to close their streets to traffic for a few hours to build their community and allow children to play. This initiative has now been running successfully since 2019 in conjunction with St Albans City and District Council. Lesley also helped set up in 2014 and continues to run the local Our Street Party initiative. They have supported over 100 local streets to hold community street parties. The story of her work on these projects was recently reported in a national blog here.
Thermal Imaging Camera
Lesley coordinates the Thermal Imaging Camera project which was initially launched in Harpenden and then expanded to the wider St Albans district. As a result of the project, local people can borrow equipment to help them spot where heat is leaking from their home. This is an extremely well utilised resource which comes with practical guidance afterwards to help residents save energy and money on their bills..
Sustainable Food
Lesley is an active advocate for food sustainability. She previously coordinated the Sustainable St Albans Open Food Gardens project, which won a Bronze Standard award in 2022 from Hertfordshire CPRE. She has also been involved with FoodSmiles at Hammonds End Farm for many years.
Harpenden Neighbourhood Plan
Lesley did enormous amounts of work on the Harpenden Neighbourhood Plan, as part of the Environment and Sustainable Design Working Group. She continues to participate in and encourage wider engagement with local planning issues such as the recent train station redesign consultation.
Street level activity
In her own street, she is Neighbourhood Watch Co-ordinator. She has organised street parties and Playing Out sessions for many years and was instrumental in setting up the street support group during Covid, including the street foodbank collection which continues to this day.
Thank you Lesley!
Overall, Lesley’s contributions to local environment and sustainability have been incredible. She is a hugely positive person with a can-do attitude and an ability to enthuse all those around her. She absolutely embodies the Sustainable St Albans aim to “find positive and creative ways to act locally to raise awareness and address the challenges of climate change; live more sustainably and move towards a low-carbon economy”.
We are hugely grateful to Lesley for all that she does for Sustainable St Albans and delighted that her work has been recognised in this way.
