RESIDENTS can now cast their vote and show their support of their favourite Hampshire organisation.

CPRE, the Countryside Charity Hampshire has announced that the Hampshire’s Choice Award Public vote is open.

Part of the Countryside Awards 2019, all fifteen finalists across the four Awards categories will be in with a chance of winning the Hampshire’s Choice Award top prize of £500.

CPRE chair Dee Haas said: "The Countryside Awards are a real celebration of all the hard work and dedication of so many people working to support or enjoy the countryside in different ways. It is genuinely heartening to see the scope of work going on throughout Hampshire by people with similar values and ideals to CPRE Hampshire; protecting, building and sustaining a thriving, diverse community and living countryside for us all to share and enjoy.

"I look forward to seeing who our final winners are and am excited to meet them all at the Awards evening.

"Our thanks go to our wonderful sponsors at Southern Co-operative, Hastoe Group, and Forest Holidays, and our supporter, Hampshire Fare, for making these awards possible."

The catagories include Community and Voluntary, Young People, Making Places, and Rural Enterprise.

All residents need to do is vote for your favourite project and the group with the most votes wins.

Last year saw the Winchester Youth Counselling project win the prize.

Jill Guppy from the service said: "We are delighted to have won this award. It means so much to us and the young people we work with.

"It gave them a real boost of confidence to attend the ceremony and win this award, they felt so proud of themselves.

"Together with our partners from the Wildlife Trust, we were really chuffed and can’t thank CPRE Hampshire and the sponsors enough for this great award."

To cast your vote, visit the website from August 12 at: www.cprehampshire.org.uk/awards/hampshires-choice-award-2019 and select your favourite entry from the list of finalists.