[T]oday, 9 June 2018, HM The Queen’s birthday honours are announced with several Cumbrians receiving Honour.
The Honours system recognises people who have made exceptional contributions to public and community life, and are committed to making a difference to those around them.
The Cumbrians include:
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)
Dr Robert Nicolas Gent of Grange-Over-Sands, for services to health protection.
Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE)
Mrs Annette Heslop of Barrow-in-Furness for services to community energy.
Mrs Lynne Jones of Keswick for services to community flood resilience.
Mr Stephen Lester of Whitehaven for services to education.
Mrs Christine Stanley Shaw of Cockermouth for services to education.
Medallist of the Order of the British Empire (BEM)
Mr Robert Sydney Barnes of Carlisle, for services to adoption.
Mr Norman John Wileman of Kendal, for services to the community.
Nominations
Anyone can nominate someone for a UK Honour through the ‘open access’ system and these are awarded to people from all walks of life.
The final decision as to who receives an honour is first decided by an Honours Committee and their recommendations will then go to the Prime Minister and finally to HM The Queen. On approval – and the process can take up to 18 months – an announcement of recipients will be made in HM The Queen’s New Year’s Honours List and HM The Queen’s Birthday Honours List in June.
Nomination forms and advice on how to complete them are available through the Cumbria County Council website.
Mrs Claire Hensman, HM Lord-Lieutenant of Cumbria, said: “I would encourage people to think about someone that they know who always goes the extra mile for others and who has made a special contribution to their community or to their area of work over the years. Anyone can nominate a person for an honour and I am very keen for people who have given exceptional service to the community to receive the recognition they deserve.
“These awards are special and for me they are the highest possible recognition of a job well done.”
Lynne Jones, Chair of Keswick Flood Action Group (KFAG) said, upon nomination: “It was a great surprise to hear about the award and I am delighted to accept it as recognition of the flood action group’s significant accomplishments. Our small team of volunteers has worked incredibly hard and campaigned tirelessly for flood prevention measures since the group was founded after significant flooding in 2005.”
“As a community we have since suffered two further devastating floods, and all three within an eleven year period. What is astonishing is that there is still no money allocated to the Derwent Catchment Area for significant measures to reduce the flood risk to our communities. Receiving this award will galvanise the action group and, I hope, raise awareness within the local community to campaign for funding even more determinedly.”
Cumbria is geographically challenging with steep catchments and sequences of heavy winter storms falling on already saturated ground. All these factors must be taken into account when planning for the future. Lynne Jones said: “Our group’s priority is to continue to press for government legislation to ensure water companies responsibly manage their assets, such as reservoirs, for flood alleviation alongside their duties to supply water and protect the environment.”
KFAG have been providing well-researched, scientific and community spearheaded solutions to flood risk in their work with the Environment Agency, Cumbria County Council, United Utilities and other key agencies. As a group, KFAG believes that the protection of local people, their homes and the welfare of wildlife are not mutually exclusive. They seek a reasonable balance of policies which protect all three.
A recent House of Lords report from March 2018 acknowledged that the current government is failing rural communities. KFAG hope, as a result of this report, that significant funding will be provided specifically to the Derwent Catchment Area which hasn’t received extra funding since Storm Desmond in 2015, unlike its sister areas in the Eden and Kent catchments. The Derwent Catchment requires a considered approach to flood risk which acknowledges the actual scale of the problem, namely the vast volumes of water which threaten communities. Lynne Jones concluded: “There has to be a co-ordinated approach to managing peak flows rather than simply ‘slowing the flow’. Only then will our carpets stay dry.”
