Awards recognise community efforts
TWO people whose efforts have made a real difference to the community have been recognised in this year’s mayoral awards.
Shipston man Phil Wragg has played a pivotal role in initiatives to protect the town from flooding. In his capacity as Chairman of the Shipston Area Flood Action Group (SAFAG), Phil was presented with the award at the recent annual town meeting, by the mayor Cllr Dan Scobie.
Dan said: “Phil has made a significant contribution in his own personal time to the issue of flooding in Shipston. The work of SAFAG has been held up as an example by the Environment Agency of how community groups can come together to combat flooding.
“Phil has put in a huge amount of work over a number of years and that is why he is a deserving winner of the Shipston Award.”
Phil said: “I was very surprised and flattered to receive this honour, but really it is a recognition for the whole group. A lot of hard work has been put in by a lot of people. We have not got the results back yet of how effective our programme has been so far, but I think almost certainly they will say that we have improved the situation in Shipston.
"We will only be about a third of the way through our improvement programme in July so there’s still a long way to go, but every little helps.”
Meanwhile, in Stratford, Becky Reynolds, founder of Stratford Rubbish Friends, has been presented with the Mayor’s Award.
Becky said: “I was completely shocked and honoured to receive this award, I still can’t quite believe it now. I didn’t actually know there was an award being given out at the event so it came as a complete surprise, that’s probably why it took me about four attempts to get to the stage.”
Stratford mayor, Cllr Victoria Alcock, said: “The work she has done for Stratford with Rubbish Friends is something that is so important to people and it’s really brought the community together.
Her concept is now spreading outside Stratford too, I’ve bumped into someone who was interested in starting a Rubbish Friends group in Liverpool. “Becky’s fantastic effort and hard work is the reason why she deserves to win the Mayor’s Award.”
