Peter Wilmers obituary

My husband, Peter Wilmers, who has died aged 72, was a pioneer of community greening whose work helped transform the Lancashire valley of Rossendale and inspired a national movement. A creative worker for the environment, he had a rare combination of strategic vision and an ability to get things done.In 1983, Peter moved as a planner from Norfolk to Lancashire to lead Rossendale Groundwork, a not-for-profit environmental charity based on local partnerships, supported by the Countryside Commission. Rossendale, a Pennine valley with high unemployment and a degraded landscape, was not home to the first Groundwork trust, but Peter, with energy and political skill, established the Rossendale organisation as a model of what Groundwork could achieve. Continue reading...