Three 'exceptional' residents of Chipping Sodbury were honoured with an inaugural award at the most recent annual council meeting that took place at the Town Hall.

This year marked the first time that the Annual Mayor's Award was given out by Sodbury Town Council to celebrate the achievements of individuals that have helped the community.

Jane Lund, who is a member of both the Friends of Chipping Sodbury Library and Sodbury In Bloom community groups received the Mayor's Award, becoming the first woman to do so.

David Shipp was also honoured after serving for a number of decades on various boards around the Sodbury area, including a 15-year stint as Chairman of the Town Trust.

Brian Fletcher was the third recipient of the award, after many years of service with the Sodbury Lions and work on Sodbury Festival.

Mayor of Sodbury James Ball handed out the awards to the trio and emphasised how important they were to the Sodbury community.

"The Annual Mayor's awards were devised by myself to thank and recognise Sodbury residents on their achievements and for their hard work in the community that we felt needed to be rewarded," he said.

"The Awards were presented to individuals for their exceptional efforts over many years and for their tireless work in the community. "Myself and a panel of Sodbury Town Councillors looked at all of the nominations and the winners of the Awards were presented with their trophies and certificates at the Annual Parish Meeting.

"The first Award winner was Jane Lund for all of her hard work with the Sodbury in Bloom team and for winning a second Gold Award from Britain in Bloom for the beautiful floral displays throughout Sodbury in 2018.

"The second Award winner was Brian Fletcher for his many years of service with the Sodbury Lions, most notably for his work on the Sodbury Festival and also the Santa Runs held in December that have raised thousand of pounds for local charities in the process.

"The third award winner was David Shipp for all of his hard work over many, many years as Chairman of the Sodbury Town Trust."