Winners announced at People of Dover Awards

People who have used their business skills or given up their voluntary time to benefit Dover have been honoured at the People of Dover Awards.

Organised by Dover Town Council, the awards are in their fifth successive year and dozens of people and organisations were nominated for the six categories, before being shortlisted by a panel and then opened up for a public vote.

The categories were for outstanding contributions to Beautiful Dover, Business in Dover, Heritage of Dover, Community and Voluntary Work in the town, Health, Sport and Wellbeing, and Helping Your Neighbour.

Dover Town Mayor Cllr Neil Rix welcomed everyone to the evening which was compered by Honorary Freeman of Dover Graham Tutthill.

Videos had been prepared by Doug Jacobs from film production company APTE to show the audience what each of those nominated had been doing before the winners were revealed and the awards were presented, some by previous winners.

Dover Soup Kitchen, whose volunteers had overcome a series of challenges to provide the service every night of the year, won the Neighbour award, with Celia Walters and Chris Tyler highly commended.

The Beautiful Dover award went to the White Cliffs Countryside Partnership and volunteers, with Bob Newington highly commended, and the Business in Dover award was presented to Sandra Malho from La Salle Verte, with Richard Esdale and Neil Wiggins highly commended.

The work carried out by Michael Orchard of the Western Heights Preservation Society was rewarded with the Heritage of Dover award, with Derek Leach and Dover Museum and staff highly commended.

The Community and Voluntary Work award went to Becky Meredith for her work at the Cross-Links centre on Buckland Estate. Highly commended were Lisa Fox of the Dover Outreach Centre which provided facilities, including night shelters in a variety of churches, for homeless people throughout the cold winter months, and Marilyn Holness from Temple Ewell.

Dawn Maddison and Laura Graham, of the Dover Smart Project received the Health, Sport and Wellbeing Award with Phillip Coleman and the Hourglass Fitness Centre highly commended.

Congratulating all the winners and runners-up, Mr Tutthill said: "There is a lot of good work that goes on in Dover, day in, day out, much of it unrecognised. These awards give us the chance to find out just how much is being done, and to thank those who do it."