Special awards for city volunteers

Representatives of Sailability at Ferry Meadows and Railworld in Oundle Road were presented with the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service in special ceremonies on Tuesday.

Brian Pearce, who co-founded Railworld and the nature reserve at the centre with Rev Richard Paten, said: “It was an amazing day. I was a bit emotional actually. Rev Paten died six years ago, but he would have loved this. He would have been thrilled. We still feel he is still here with us.

“It is fantastic we can celebrate all the volunteers, companies and individuals who have all come together for this project.”

Mr Pearce has been awarded an MBE for his work, and will be presented with his honour in November.

James Hopgood, from Sailability, added: “We are very proud to get this award. It was great to see some of our volunteers here, but also some of our disabled sailors here as well. We started 13 years ago with six sailors, and now we have around 200.”

There was a third award ceremony on Tuesday, this time at Peterborough Town Hall, where Tahir Masood received his British Empire Medal.

Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire Julie Spence presented the award to Mr Masood who was given the honour in recognition of his work with young people.

He has spend nearly three decades working with teenagers in the city.