The 2019 Newbury Town Civic Award, the Newbury Town Young Persons Civic Award and the Newbury Town Business Civic Award were presented at the Annual Town Meeting of Newbury Town Council on Monday 18 March 2019 by the Mayor of Newbury, Cllr Margo Payne. The awards recognise the town’s unsung heroes, those people who have made an exceptional contribution to our community on a voluntary basis.
Terry & Maureen Dummett were presented with the Black Horse trophy as the winner of The Newbury Town Civic Award 2019. Terry & Maureen have given freely of their time to increase safety for the community in Wash Common over the past 30 years. They just go quietly about keeping their eyes and ears open and their caring attitude seems to help them recognise whenever something is amiss and needing attention. Between them they have been volunteer gate keepers for the car park at Wash Common, both ends of the day, meaning that the neighbours have peace and quiet overnight without movement of vehicles in, to or from the car park. Whenever a car is parked in the car park at locking up time, they search the area to locate the driver and put notes on cars saying where to contact to get out. Terry & Maureen have, on numerous occasions, had to call the emergency services during the night to assist for various reasons, in addition they are very active with Neighbourhood Watch.
The winner of the the Newbury Town Business Civic Award was the Newbury Weekly News. Our truly local paper championed the Rosemary Appeal to successfully raise £5.4m for a state of the art cancer care and renal dialysis facility which opened at West Berkshire Community Hospital in 2018. They continue to highlight the growing plight of homeless people on the streets of Newbury, supporting the establishment of a night shelter in the town centre and raising funds for the Newbury Soup Kitchen through their successful Best in Business Awards. Each Christmas the Newbury Weekly News runs the Over 80’s Parcel Fund, now in its 121st year. Nearly 2,000 elderly people received goodies over the 2018 festive period in a real community effort with schools, scouts and businesses all getting involved. It also provided parking spaces for the Volunteer Centre West Berkshire to park their handybuses and they give hundreds of brand new books to local primary schools each year to encourage literacy and they run the Young Photographer of the Year Competition to encourage creativity. NWN also sponsors the Newbury Town Council school debating competition and Newbury Pancake Races, in addition, they support scores of charities and good causes and many of the community events in our town would not happen without their backing.
And finally, the winner of the Newbury Town Young Persons Civic Award, was Lily-May Fisher. Lily-May is a kind-hearted 9 year old child who is a young carer for her mum. Lily-May often has to deal with adult issues and take on responsibilities well beyond her years. She looks after her Mother when she is unwell, phoning for assistance when required whilst reassuring her mum. Added to this, Lily-May helps out at home on a daily basis, waking up her younger siblings and making them and herself breakfast and packed lunch. She then goes to school for the day where she is doing amazingly well. After school, Lily-May looks after her siblings, washes up after dinner, does her homework and she likes to brush and style her mum’s hair. Before she goes to bed herself, Lily supports her mum getting her siblings bathed and into bed. When mum is poorly, Lily gladly does more to help. She is always polite, well-mannered and willing to go that extra mile to help others. She is a role model for her peers with her positive attitude and selfless willingness to put her family first.
The Mayor of Newbury, Councillor Margo Payne, congratulated all of the nominees for the Awards.
