QUARRY workers have helped cement an environment award with their efforts to protect and improve the countryside around the site.

Lancashire Evening Telegraph Editor Peter Butterfield visited to Castle Cement in Clitheroe to hand over the Grimewatch award and inspect the work.

Mr Butterfield said the company had received a special commendation in the newspaper's green awards because of the way workers had enhanced the environment despite being involved in an environmentally intrusive industry.

He said: "We need cement works because we need cement.

"Unfortunately, the manufacture of cement is an environmentally intrusive operation.

"But the work force at Castle Cement have gone beyond the call of duty to improve and maintain the area.

"This award reflects their awareness of animals, green issues and the countryside.

"That is something which is important in an area as naturally beautiful as the Ribble Valley."

The quarry project has enabled employees to show the public the huge range of wildlife species which exist in and around the Lanehead Quarry.

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