Mayor's medal award to St Annes stalwarts

The medals were handed out by St Annes town mayor Coun Cheryl Little to mark dedicated service to the town - and she has pledged that there will be more to come later in her tenure, which runs until May.

Recipients were Lytham and St Annes town crier Colin Ballard, restaurateur Veli Kirk, who is also deputy chairman of the St Annes Enterprise Partnership, Bev Sykes, founder of the Just Good Friends community group, Digby Moulden, chairman of Lytham St Annes RNLI fund-raising branch and Mark Daniels from The Stage Company, who has hosted various local events.

Coun Little said: “I was delighted to hand over the medals to these very deserving people and there will be more handed out in the coming months.

“The opportunity presented itself for councils such as ours to acquire some of the medals and I thought it was the ideal way to recognise the efforts of people who do so much to benefit the community and promote the town.

“All five of the recipients very much come under that banner - all have worked so hard to do their very best for St Annes and are clearly eager to do all they can for the town and its people.

“The Queen’s 90th birthday is a very special year nationally and the medals are a great way of acknowledging dedication to communities such as ours.

“These are exciting times for St Annes and the efforts of people such as these recipients give us so much to build on.”

The 32mm solid gilding medal in a bespoke royal blue gold embossed card has been produced exclusively for schools and councils.