by Graham Tutthill

gtutthill@thekmgroup.co.uk

Four people from Dover and Deal are being featured on local buses in the area.

It’s an initiative by the bus company Stagecoach, in the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee year, to find people who deserve recognition for what they do for the community.

During June, passengers on the Stagecoach Diamond bus network were asked to nominate people who they thought had contributed most.

Then a team from Stagecoach selected four who shone out of all the contenders and who are now featured on buses.

They “local diamonds” are Steve Yarrow and Alyson Grayson from Dover, and Candice Roberts and Flt Lt Geoff Hobbs-East from Deal. Two buses have been dedicated to each of them.

Mr Yarrow, who is a former President of the Rotary Club of Dover and the current President of the Old Pharosians’ Association (the old boys of Dover Grammar School) runs the Dover-based sheet music mail order company Forwoods Music. He is Director of Music at St Mary’s Church and for founding the busy Pharos Chamber Choir, which he directs voluntarily.

Mrs Grayson, who runs the Fox Inn at Temple Ewell with her husband Steve, was championed by her daughter Sophie for her “drive and hard work” within the village and for taking on the role of chairman for the Village Hall.

Mrs Roberts was nominated by her mother Marlene Hargrave for helping to save the Deal Breastfeeding Support Group after it faced closure through lack of funding.

Mrs Roberts said she was “amazed and chuffed to bits” when she found she had been chosen as a local diamond, especially as the news came the day after the group had registered as a charity.

Former RAF drill instructor Geoff Hobbs-East has been the Flight Lieutenant commanding Deal’s 2235 Air Training Corp since 2008. He was secretly nominated by family and friends in recognition of the time and dedication the full time property management consultant applies to not only the operational administration but also fundraising to enhance facilities.

Full story in this week's Dover Mercury and East Kent Mercury.