Success for PT’s Peterborough Unlimited campaign at awards night

The campaign has seen recent success with the announcement of £80,000 Changing Places funding to provide two accessible toilets in the city.

It was launched last year, with the help of campaigners including actress and Peterborough resident Julie Fernandez and city councillor Julie Howell.

At the Athene Peterborough Regional PR and Media Awards the campaign won the award for Community Contribution of the Year.

Councillor Howell said: “We’re really delighted to receive this award from Athene, as it recognises what we believe to be true: that disabled residents have an inarguable right of access to Peterborough’s city centre facilities.

“How can it be that a person using a wheelchair or a person who is deaf or blind (or both) or a person with a learning disability should find it so much harder than everyone else to shop in our city?

“This recognition will be a further platform from which we will continue to argue for disabled people’s rights and we hope very much that those in charge of developing Peterborough will listen and take action.”

Former Peterborough Telegraph editor Mark Edwards said; “This was a really important campaign we are very proud of. It was formulated by our former colleague Joel Lamy who did excellent work on it, and with support from Julie Fernandez and Julie Howell, has delivered some excellent results.”

Other winners on the night included John Bridge, who was given a life time achievement award for his contributions to local businesses, charities and growth opportunities to the region.

Paolo Iantosca won the Rising Star award for his work with Peterborough United, while Peterborough Telegraph reporter Ben Jones was highly commended in the category.

Peterborough City Council and Cambridgeshire County Council won the Internal Communications Campaign of the year, while Peterborough Positive won the Communications Campaign of the Year. Nene Park Trust were highly commended.

Peterborough United won the Communications Team of the Year, while South Cambridgeshire District Council were highly commended.

Rachel Wild, Managing Director at Athene Communications, said: “We think it’s important to reflect on what has been achieved by those working hard often behind the scenes to promote the city and region and the various great projects going on in and around it. I would like to extend my congratulations to all those nominated and to all of the winners.

“There has been some brilliant communications work carried out, especially during Covid times, so we really wanted to highlight the contributions that have been made to our city throughout this difficult period. Thank you to everyone who was in attendance, it was a wonderful evening and it was great to be able to hold it in person – we look forward to celebrating more positive work like this in the future.”