Frome Town Council held its Annual Town Meeting with a recap on one of the most unusual years in its history - along with a round of applause for four key community heroes.

Two of those honoured could not make it to the on-line Zoom meeting but all were honoured with an emotional and heartfelt thanks from the council.

Dougie Brown who is behind the be-friending and loneliness fighting charity Active in Touch, could not make the meeting. He, and the organisation, were applauded for the fantastic work of engaging with those isolated within the Frome community, and he also got a special thanks for his selfless decision to hand on the bouquet of flowers he received as part of his award to the mayor.

Katy Harris, who has done incredible work for Fair Frome with her cooking for the most vulnerable in the town, was too also unable to attend, but was thanked for all her hard work, dedication and catering, along with her passion and commitment which saw the Frome Saturday market restored to the town.

The Mayor of Frome Cllr Anita Collier then led thanks to the other two recipients, Terri Pitts who was instrumental in setting up the award-winning community fridge. The idea of the free-to-all access fridge for unused food has now spread from its original home in the Cheese & Grain car park, with satellites in other areas of the town. No judgement, no questions; the unique to Frome fridge operates as an open to all facility to use up groceries which would otherwise go into food waste.

Then, on behalf of the team at Frome Medical Practice, Dr Helen Kingston was honoured with one of the hero awards. Cllr Collier told her: " You do the most amazing work up there. We are indebted to you (and your team) for all your work, and now with the vaccine roll out, with some of the greatest numbers in the south west, we say, you do a superb job."

After a round of applause for all the four mentioned, Cllr Collier then rounded up her year as mayor, saying wryly that it has not gone as she had expected. However : " I have had the most incredible year, I love this town and I have had a ball."

The Mayor, who revealed that she has been resident in Frome for over 40 years, had hoped to make her year one full of social events, but plans, including one for a mayoral ball, had been derailed by coronavirus.

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However she had, before lockdown, initiated a weekly walk about meeting the businesses and individuals who defined Frome and was was thanked by Cllr Ali Barclay for her engaging work all over the town and for playing such an active part in what was happening across Frome.

As the other councillors thanked her for her hard work, council leader Cllr Anne Hills paid tribute to Cllr Collier for : " Stepping up to the plate for our town."