HEART Awards MarshallayThe sixth annual HEART awards saw the contributions to community safety made by Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service, Hertfordshire Resilience, Trading Standards and the County Community Safety Unit highlighted at the end of 2015.

All sections of the community protection directorate were honoured with crew commander Andy Marshallsay (pictured with CFO Roy Wilsher) claiming the top prize of ‘Employee of the Year’, sponsored by APB Mobile Installations.

Marshallay works on training and rope rescue at Hertfordshire’s training centre alongside his huge contributions as a cadet instructor at the Watford Fire Cadets. Over the past 15 years, he has regularly spent his free time organising Cadet Camps and Pump Competitions, as well as attending the National Cadet AGM and being in the introduction of the BTEC Award for the Cadets. His work extends beyond Hertfordshire, providing courses across the country and even using his annual leave to provide training in Finland and Poland.

In his nomination speech ACO Chris Bigland said: “Andy has never turned anyone away, and he makes the Cadets so welcoming that the majority of them stay on as Volunteer Instructors when they are too old to be Cadets.

In the other individual award category, the Star of Stars Award, which draws its nominations from the winners of Herts’ monthly You are a Star awards, went jointly to Community Safety Co-ordinator for St Albans and Dacorum Jack Daw for his work on Think Safe, a programme of promoting keeping safe strategies for vulnerable adults, and Station Clerk Lesley Catchpole for her dedication to Welwyn Garden City Fire Station.

Presiding over the whole awards, Director of Community Protection CFO Roy Wilsher said: “It was a real privilege for me to present the HEART awards again this year and to personally thank the people working day after day to keep Hertfordshire residents safe.

“People working in the Community Protection department work tirelessly to make Hertfordshire a safer place. While much of our work is now preventative, there are times when our staff risk their own safety for the sake of others and I’m extremely proud and thankful for everything they do to keep Hertfordshire residents safe and to respond to emergencies when they occur. The standard of nominations gets higher every year, and while all the nominations were excellent, the chosen winners were well deserved.”

Find out about all the other HEART Awards winners in Dec/Jan's FIRE Magazine - click here to subscribe from just £30+VAT.