A countryside campaigner from Bucks has triumphed in a competition to find the nation's most influential figures involved in outdoors life.

Kate Ashbrook, who lives in Turville, Bucks, has won The Great Outdoors magazine’s Outdoor Personality of the Year award, topping a shortlist of 11 which included mountaineers Sir Chris Bonington and Alan Hinkes, and fellrunner Jos Naylor.

Kate was nominated after being hailed "a knowledgeable and fearless campaigner for our rights in the great outdoors".

Kate has been general secretary of the Henley-based Open Spaces Society, Britain’s oldest national conservation body, for 31 years.

She is also president of the Ramblers GB and footpath secretary for the Ramblers in Bucks; a trustee of the Campaign for National Parks and patron of the Walkers Are Welcome Towns Network.

Graham Bathe, chairman of the Open Spaces Society, said: "It is a fitting tribute that Kate should be given such recognition.

"She works tirelessly to ensure that our rights in the countryside, and in particular our access to paths, greens and common land, are protected.

"In fact, it is because of her energy and dedication, that so much of the great outdoors remains accessible for us all to enjoy today. Well done, Kate.’

The Open Spaces Society celebrates its 150th anniversary this year.

It was founded in 1865 and is Britain’s oldest national conservation body.

the society campaigns to protect common land, village greens, open spaces and public paths, and the public's right to enjoy them.

This year in Bucks, Kate has campaigned against the expansion of The Fox Country Hotel in Ibstone and the effect the society claims it would have on Ibstone Common in the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.