Peterborough volunteer receives British Empire Medal for services to the community

Peterborough volunteer John Sharman (87) has been awarded the British Empire Medal for services to the community for 17 years of service to the local community.

John helped to form the Botolph Green Residents Association committee in 2006 which began its work in 2007.

John helped to form the first group of volunteers with former councillor David Thorpe, who was able to secure the secures £4,000 for the group from a new fund the council had made available to each ward to promote ‘community cohesion.’

This helped start the event, which has taken place annually since 2007, known as St Botolph’s Festival on the Green.

The association then branched out its work, with one of their main projects being the regeneration of the green space and the signature pond in the area.

A key part of the campaign was also the creation and delivery of leaflets, that a 21-strong team of volunteers helped to deliver.

John said: “It’s an area of freedom, a wide open space people use. It was a bit of a mess. One of the first things that came after the festival was to improve that.

“We called in experts, got a lot of co-operation from city council and we were able to get the pond completely dug out and relined, started its life all over again.

“It has improved dramatically and that has taken a lot of volunteers, who turned up, sometimes 30 or 40 at at time.

“We then turned our attention to the footpath that everyone walks up, it runs from co-op down to the station. We started looking after it because it had been very neglected.

"It needed looking after, the grass hadn’t been looked after very well and it looked like a ploughed field.

"There were so many old Christmas trees dumped down there when we started clearing it, it’s not true.”

John retired a couple of years ago but has lived in Botolph Green for the last 22 years. He has been very impressed with the work of the new committee and has thanked all of the volunteers that have helped to make the area what it has become over the years.

John added: “Although I’ve been given the award, it recognises the work that the volunteers have done. I suppose I did rally those volunteers and we’ve been able to keep some of them right through from 2006.

“It’s been done well and it’s a nice area. At the time, community cohesion is a phrase that didn’t mean an awful lot to us. We called it ‘getting to know your neighbour’ and that’s what we’ve done.

“Whether people have been involved in the festival, clearing the pond or the woodland, people have got to know their neighbours.

"I retired a couple of years ago but the new group do very good job. The city council are very co-operative and when you get that sort of co-operation you can really do quite a lot. What I’ve done is rally people who’ve done all the work.”