Nineteen gardens in Cheshire have been honoured with Action for Nature wildlife garden awards for their efforts to preserve animal and plant life.

Action for Nature is a partnership between Trafford Council and a host of conservation groups who work to improve the environment in Trafford.

The winners included St Alphonsus RC School and Barry Ashcroft in Flixton who won Gold Standard awards and Seymour Park School and Green Team St Michael Church who won Silver Standard awards, reports thisischeshire.co.uk.

The awards come at a time when UK gardeners are being urged to help wildlife as much as possible.

Earlier this week Lancashire Wildlife Trust warned of a battle to save the nation's red squirrel population from an outbreak of squirrel pox that is carried by grey squirrels.

A spokesperson from Save our Squirrels told Wildlife Exra: "If we don't win this battle, we could be saying goodbye to our red squirrels forever."

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