Fire and Rescue staff presented with awards

21 December 2021

The achievements of staff across Norfolk Fire & Rescue Service have been recognised through employee awards.

A ceremony to present the awards was cancelled due to the pandemic, so senior leaders have visited some of the recipients of the 2021 awards individually and will continue to do so when Covid-19 restrictions allow.

As well as honouring staff with long service awards, categories also included fundraiser of the year, making a difference awards and leadership accolades.

• Ashley Baldwin and Volunteer Rosie Richardson won the cadet category, as despite cadets being unable to meet through the pandemic, they kept in contact with our cadets to check on their welfare and support them emotionally.
• Rob Laws received the fundraiser of the year award for organising a motorcycle rally, raising £2,300 for The Fire Fighters charity. During the event he delivered vital safety and recruitment messages to audiences around Norfolk.
• Volunteer of the year went to the Rapid Relief Team who support our crews with catering services at large, protracted incidents.
• Emyr Gough, who is based in the central district, and Greg Preston, who is head of fire prevention and protection, both received Inspirational Leader awards.
• Payroll’s Mary Harpley, Technical Support’s Andy Dungar and our Youth Development Team all won Making a Difference awards for their exceptional efforts during the pandemic ways of working.

Outstanding contribution to pandemic response awards went to:

• Five staff working in Norfolk’s temporary mortuary- Clive Wells, John Linden, Ash Cawston, Natalie Rushton and Spencer Whalley.
• Our driver training team who moved medical equipment, PPE and trained EEAST drivers.
• Our NHS Support team, Gavin Smith, Barry Clarke, Roger Mitchell, Stefan Rider, Clive Denniss, John Baker, Terry Pinto, who implemented our response to the NHS by finding suitable NFRS staff to assist with tasks including staffing vaccination centres, and deploying them into the NHS.
• Our Supplies Team – Britt Murray and Steve Woodgate – for their efforts in supplying PPE to all of our teams and working under extreme pressure.
• Our community safety team members Kristie Burdett, Gosia Zielinska and Rob Kemp-Small for continuing to work with vulnerable and high-risk cases across Norfolk’s communities, providing education and carrying out fire prevention work.

Awards were also unable to be presented in 2020 to their recipients, due to the ongoing pandemic. Those awards recipients were:

• Fundraiser of the Year: Louis Tidswell (Fire Fighters Charity)
• Volunteer of the Year: Gary Szabo (youth development Teams volunteer)
• Cadet of the Year: Sofia Legood
• Pioneer: John Linden
• Inspirational Leader: Mike Walton, Steven Hornby, Terry Pinto
• Making a Difference: Bree Cooke, Steven Woodgate, Andy Saunders, Gavin Smith
• Chief Fire Officer Awards: Starr Aylmer & Leigh Webster (Members of the Public), Michelle Boon & Samantha Hancox (Members of the Public), Reepham On-Call Crew, Clive Wells, George Bray, North Earlham Red Watch, Sue Rogers.
• Cabinet Member’s Award: Leigh Prior, Hugo Douglas-Deane and Karen Rowley

Alongside the category awards, long service awards recognising a total of 1,355 years of service were given out. These included, for 2021,

43 x long service good conduct 20 Year Medals for operational firefighters and six 20 Year Service certificates for other team members.

The 20 Year Service certificates for 2021 were awarded to:

• Carol Keach
• Sally Green
• Eleanor Foster
• Claire Boer
• Mark Andrews
• Amanda Bailey

The 2021 long service good conduct 20 Year Medals went to:

• Barry Allen
• Simon Atkin
• Robert Bateman
• Simon Britcher
• Robert Burling
• Alan Burrage
• Allan Cook
• Robert Curtis
• Gary Davison
• Clive Denniss
• Thomas Diaper
• Mark Duff-Dick
• James Duncan
• Paul Edwards
• Ashley Elvin
• John Folkes
• Daniel Godward
• Ben Grant
• Neil Hambling
• Ryan Hastings
• Shaun Hearn
• Ian Herdman
• Lucian Hodkinson
• Steven Hornby
• Peter Hurn
• John Jacobs
• Mark Johnson
• Jonathan Kennell-Webb
• Rigil Kent
• James Little
• Paul Meen
• Marcus Mollicone
• Paul Owen
• Gavin Plummer
• Simon Ruff
• David Smithson
• Phillip Soanes
• Lee Spiers
• Ian Stolworthy
• Daniel Stoker
• Philip Tinkley
• Dean Watson
• Adrian Wilder

30 Year Service certificates were awarded to:

• Philip Neeve
• Gary Miller
• Barry Clarke

35 Year Service certificates were awarded to

• Jonathan Wilby
• Douglas Kelly
• Gary Thorpe
• Stephen Broom
• John Baker
• Stephen Booth
• Joanne Baker

40 Year Service Certificate was awarded to

• James Groom

2020’s long service awards, accounting for a total of 1,130 years of service, were:

20 x long service good conduct 20-year medals and five x 20 Year Service certificates.

The 20 Year Service certificate for 2020 were awarded to:

• Susan Barber
• Barbara Coulson
• Phillip Hall
• Melissa Steward
• Dale Mann

The 20 Year medals were awarded to:

• James Belcher
• Paul Browne
• Steven Cole
• Andrew Cracknell
• Mark Endersby
• David Fraser
• Peter Greeves
• Thaine Hacon
• Luke Hancock
• Martin Harris
• James Hilton
• Simon Hilton
• Stephen Keen
• Jason Legg
• Scott Norman
• Matthew Oxborrow
• Jennifer Schamp
• Jonathon Smith
• Timothy Squires
• Daren Taylor

The 30 Year Service certificates were awarded to:

• Robert Ayers
• Philip Bland
• Simon Forth
• Greg Platford
• Michael Reeve
• Stephen Bond
• Barry Rudd
• Michael Walton
• Clive Wells
• Deborah Whitby
• Ricky Wright

The 35 Year Service certificates were awarded to:

• Stuart Baxter
• Andrew Dungar
• Kenneth Wallis-Gare
• Carl Mills

The 40 Year Service certificates were awarded to:

• Gary Pegg
• Carolyn Stevens
• David Abbs
• Mick Whitby

Councillor Margret Dewsbury, Cabinet member for Communities and Partnerships at Norfolk County Council, said: “After what has been a challenging year for us all, Norfolk Fire and Rescue have continued their exceptional work in the face of both the usual challenges of firefighting and new ones created by the pandemic.

Congratulations to all the winners and thank you to all members of the service receiving long service medals, your dedication to Norfolk is inspiring.”