Billingshurst postman, Keith Nichols, who devotes a great deal of time into restoring the Wey & Arun Canal has won the Royal Mail's 1^st Class People Awards for community work for the London & South East Region.

The awards for postmen and women are in three categories: 1^st Class charity fundraisers; unsung heroes of the local community, or those who performed a public spirited act of bravery or helped with an emergency whilst out on their deliveries.

Keith is one of a small band of craftsmen keeping a traditional skill of hedgelaying alive. He is one of the volunteers helping to restore the Wey & Arun Canal whose aim is to restore the 23-mile navigable link between the rivers Wey and Arun as a public amenity.

He became interested in conservation work 37 years ago and took a career break to do a conservation course at college 17 years ago. He then moved to Loxwood, West Sussex and became involved in their hedgelaying project to improve the canal side footpaths and create proper boundaries to keep livestock away from water, provide habitats for wildlife and preserve native species.

Hedgelaying is a traditional way of making strong hedges and a craft which had started to die out. Keith has now trained a dozen people how to do it.

So far he and his team have completed 2.5 miles of hedgelaying working alternate weekends and days off in the winter months. It can only be done October to March.

Keith's voluntary work equates to over £35,000 of time donated to the Wey & Arun Canal Trust as a commercial hedge laying costs £10-£12 per metre.

Mark Higson Royal Mail's Managing Director said: Our postmen and women are a group of very remarkable people who contribute so much, with acts of kindness, a huge amount of fundraising, and a commitment to volunteering which makes such a difference to the local communities where they live and work.

Peter Foulger, chairman of the Wey & Arun Canal Trust, added his congratulations to Keith Keith does a remarkable job for the Wey & Arun Canal and thoroughly deserves to win. He inspires many to join the Wey & Arun Canal and is totally committed.

Royal Mail's people have given in excess of £27.5 million to charity through payroll giving over the past 15 years, and are also enthusiastic fundraisers, donating thousands of hours of their spare time and millions of pounds to good causes and community projects.

For more information: www.royalmail.com/firstclasspeople

Further information can be obtained from the Wey and Arun Trust's Public Relations Officer: Sally Schupke (01483 560543): e-mail: pr@weyandarun.co.uk.

For general information on the work of the Wey and Arun Canal Trust, please telephone the Trust office on 01403 752403.