Pride of Reading awards for Bell Tower and local school

It’s a double celebration for our area of Reading as our community association and primary school were both honoured in the Pride of Reading Awards. The Bell Tower Community Association and EP Collier School in Swansea Road are both proud and delighted to receive their awards.

The Association, which is just two years old, won the Environmental Projects category for its work in cleaning up graffiti. The school, which sits at the heart of the neighbourhood and from which the Association takes its name, won the Healthy Lifestyle category.

David Neale, organiser of the “G Team” anti-graffiti squad, said after the awards ceremony: “We are truly surprised and honoured to receive such an award. The graffiti clean-up started last spring with a few of us cleaning up Ross Road one morning, and it’s hard to believe how big it’s become.”

Teresa Colliass, Chair of the Community Association, said, “When Bell Tower Community Association was formed in 2005 our aim was to get a community spirit going and to see what could be done to make this a better place in which to live and work. We’ve risen to the challenge, and this award proves that small organisations like ourselves have the opportunity to make a real difference.”

The awards were presented at the Renaissance Hotel on November 29 by Reading-born Chris Tarrant, and celebrate the individuals, organisations and businesses in the town who have really made a difference.

(Photo L-R: Jenny Gladwell, EP Collier School headteacher; David Neale, Bell Tower; Justine McMinn, EP Collier School; Teresa Colliass, Bell Tower; Gail Boorman & Chris Bloomfield, nominators.)