........and the President's Award goes to..................

10.18.23am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 20th Oct 2009

Geoff Seeff writes

President Ros Scott presents the award to Maureen and Richard

The executive committee of the Chingford and Woodford Green Liberal Democrats nominated Maureen and Richard Hoskins for this year's President's Award - an honour that is given to individuals in recognition of their outstanding service to the Party. The President, Baroness Ros Scott, and her panel of senior dignitaries have decided that Maureen and Richard's contribution over many years has been exceptional and that they should receive the award jointly. The presentation took place at the Conference in Bournemouth in September.

Maureen and Richard are well known in the community for their work over many years as councillors, school governors, and both served as (ceremonial) mayor of Redbridge, to which office they each gave dignity and distinction. Richard was a magistrate and acted a chair of the bench and was a former parliamentary candidate in 1970 (Wanstead and Woodford) and 1983 (Chingford). The nomination enumerated their various and many political achievements but I rather suspect the final paragraph may have been the deciding factor for the panel. It read

"The above represents a fairly remarkable contribution to the local community for a husband and wife team. But what distinguishes them is the fact that, despite this workload, they have throughout been central to the social life of party members. They are inveterate organisers of events at their own house - strawberry fairs, summer barbecues/lunches, wine tasting. Whilst one objective of such activities is to raise funds, they have been instrumental in retaining the loyalty and interest of existing members, attracting new recruits and generally boosting morale. There is a tremendous amount of time and effort (and probably cost) involved in committing to such work and everything they have done has been in a spirit of generosity and good humour."

Hearty congratulations to both of them.