Chester community champion recognised in King's birthday honours - full Cheshire list

Seven people living or working in Cheshire have been honoured by the King in his second Birthday Honours List. Among them is Chester community champion Ann Charlton, 71, who has been awarded the British Empire Medal for services to the community in Kingsway.

Ann, chair of the Kingsway and Newton Residents Association (KANRA), has been praised for offering help, advice and support to local residents for over a decade from the Community Hub, a small shop unit occupied by the Resident’s Association. The Community Hub has become the centre of operations in Kingsway, providing a place for residents to attend surgeries with the local police officers, councillors, and the Member of Parliament.

The Community Hub has become an emergency food parcel distributor for the local food bank, a Tier 2 community policing hub and hate crime reporting centre. During the Covid pandemic, multi-faceted support for local residents was organised by Ann from the Community Hub, which also served as a donation station for the Ukraine emergency response following the Russian invasion in 2022.

Ann said the award will “always have a special place” for her. “It’s been really hard not to say anything about it,” she said, after she was informed of the award by letter in early May.

“It was a Friday evening, I had come home, and when I saw ‘Cabinet Office’ on the envelope I thought ‘What have I done?’” jokes Ann. After opening the letter, Ann says she simply thought “wow”, before making a cup of tea and calling her daughter.

Ann said: “Hopefully it puts a spotlight on Kingsway, because it’s a lovely area, and it deserves much more than it has got.

“We started the residents association in 2003, so it has been going for quite a long time. We were able to take over one of the shops as a hub, and it has grown from there. Without the volunteers we have got, we wouldn’t be able to do it at all.”

Ann believes her drive to help out in her community to her childhood. “That’s the way I was brought up, that you help people,” she said. “I brought my family up in Kingsway, so Kingsway is special to me. Over the years, you see things change, and you think it needs a lot more TLC than it gets sometimes.

“Living in a community, you get involved in lots of things. We never say ‘no’, we always say ‘we can try’.”

In 2020, Ann was on the front lines of the community response to the pandemic, successfully planning a community response operation that organised shopping, distributed food parcels, and collected prescriptions for local people who were shielding.

Ann said: “During the pandemic, we were doing food shopping, prescription drops, re-furnishing flats for domestic violence [victims]. Sometimes, we just had to speak to people because it was a lonely time.”

After the outbreak of war in Ukraine in February 2022, Ann turned the Community Hub into a donation station. Her efforts said 335 boxes of clothing, medical supplies and food sent to help refugees.

Also mentioned in the King’s Birthday Honours list:

• Emma Jane Degg MBE, 54, Chester, Cheshire; Chief Executive, North West Business Leadership Team. For services to Business and to the community in North West England

• Cheryl Foster MBE, 43, Chester, Cheshire; Referee, Football Association of Wales. For services to Association Football and to Women's Sport

• Charles John Nevin MBE, 79, Cheadle Hulme, Greater Manchester; Trustee, The Laurus Trust, Cheadle, Cheshire. For services to Education.

• Philip John Speight (Phil Speight) MBE, 75, Macclesfield, Cheshire; Canal Boat Painter. For services to Heritage Crafts

• Valerie Elaine Bryant BEM, 79, from Knutsford; Manager and Trustee, Knutsford Heritage Centre. For services to the Heritage and the community in Knutsford, Cheshire.

• Ann Doyle BEM, 65, Warrington; Technical Specialist, Environment Agency. For services to Water Regulation and to the community in Warrington

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