The High Sheriff Award has been presented to a Monmouth resident who has made a huge contribution to the environment of Monmouth.

Vivienne Mitchell has spearheaded Transition Monmouth since 2005 whose aim was about the transition to life without oil by building resilient communities.

Nominated by Councillor Catherine Fookes, Vivienne received the award from the High Sheriff of Gwent, Mr Malgwyn Davies at the beginning of Monmouth Town Council’s meeting on Monday, November 28.

“‘I nominated Vivien for this award as she has made such a huge contribution to Monmouth over the past 30 years and she deserves recognition for it! Her recent work has mainly focused on ‘greening’ Monmouth but in the past she has been on the Chamber of Commerce, the town council and many more groups beside. Whatever group Vivien has been involved in, she has always acted with the utmost integrity, kindness and at root of all she does is partnership and collaboration” said Catherine.

In her typical modesty, Vivienne told the Beacon that she was flattered and excited to receive this award but thought: “why should I get an award for doing what I passionately believe in and love doing? What is so good about it is the hundreds of members that we have, and the hundreds more that are volunteers working on our various projects, and the hundreds of supporters who all contribute in different ways, and it’s the community groups that we work with.”

Since 1990 Vivien Mitchell has been an active and engaged member of the Monmouth community and was involved with the Chamber of Commerce for eight years from 1990 when she first moved to Monmouth. In 2004 she started her community work in earnest with the Monmouth Partnership Forum, Monmouth Fairtrade Forum and the Two River Meadow Group, holding the positions of chair, secretary or treasurer of all the groups at various times.

In 2005 Vivien joined the town council and was chair of Environmental Affairs for two years. This is when she started various planting projects around the town, some of which are still in existence today.

In 2007 with her friend Simon Brown, Vivien set up Transition Monmouth which has played a huge role in positively impacting the town.

In the various roles within Transition, she has devoted much of her time to this group which now counts around 2,500 people in its membership. Transition started with providing a Big Green Monmouth Shopper – a jute bag to reduce plastic use and has since completed many projects from seed, plant and produce swaps to planting wonderful orchards, flood alleviation and developing a kitchen garden and wildflower meadow for Monmouth Comprehensive School.

In 2013 Transition took over the management of Claypatch Woods in Wyesham – an area that was much neglected, fly-tipped and unloved. Assembling a community group to help with the work, the land is now drained, the trees (under expert management and tuition) have been thinned, members of the local community have received training in woodland management, and the area is now a much used community asset under the care of the local community with regular working parties.

Transition’s latest project came to fruition in 2020 when the Monmouth Community Fridge opened. Teams collect surplus food from the supermarkets each evening and this is made available the following day at the Community Fridge. Each month around two tons of food are saved from landfill along with hundreds of bunches of flowers.

Vivienne said that when they set up Transition Monmouth they met Transition Groups in other towns and it quickly became clear to her that the community in Monmouth was different in that it is very collaborative “and by working harmoniously together you get so much more done, and you have this tremendous feeling of well-being, this ‘coming together’, making new friends, achieving with like-minded members of the community – and this is what makes our work very rewarding – so my grateful thanks to our wonderful supportive community.

‘‘My thanks to Catherine Fookes for recognising this, and thank you once again, High Sheriff, for your recognition and the honour of your wonderful award.

‘‘We will treasure it,” she added.