AN AWARD-winning countywide project has gained a grant that will mean it can carry on its innovative measuring of the Suffolk countryside.Suffolk's Changing Landscape Project has been awarded a £21,696 grant from the Local Heritage Initiative (LHI), which is a partnership between the Heritage Lottery Fund, Nationwide Building Society and the Countryside Agency.

AN AWARD-winning countywide project has gained a grant that will mean it can carry on its innovative measuring of the Suffolk countryside.

Suffolk's Changing Landscape Project has been awarded a £21,696 grant from the Local Heritage Initiative (LHI), which is a partnership between the Heritage Lottery Fund, Nationwide Building Society and the Countryside Agency.

The project, established in 1999 as "The Millennium Challenge", involves a unique partnership between the Suffolk East and Suffolk West Federations of the Women's Institutes, local authorities and the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Unit.

Across the county, 156 Women's Institutes took part in surveying a kilometre square in winter and Summer 1999. The resulting analysis provided a sample picture of what the Suffolk landscapes looked like in terms of the number of trees, ponds, length of hedgerows extent of grassland and a whole host of other information.

These results form a base from which the effectiveness of each of the local planning authorities' rural sustainability policies will be measured.

The LHI grant will help all communities involved to fulfil their commitment to re-survey their squares every 5 years, commencing in January 2004. These will show how, and why, the distinctive Suffolk Landscape is changing over time.

Helen Carey, WI national chairman, said: "I am delighted that the hard work and dedication of members of Suffolk East and Suffolk West Federations of WI's has been recognised with this award of the LHI Grant.

"This means that the important landscape audit work they have been doing in their local communities and countryside can continue for the benefit of future generations."