by Sam Holliday, Editor of The Bath Chronicle

The Bath Chronicle is proud today to unveil the winners of our first People of the Year awards.

They represent our choice of the events, organisations and most important of all, the people, who have made their mark on Bath and the surrounding towns and villages during 2008.

We decided to have our own mini ‘New Year Honours’ because it perfectly fits our philosophy of celebrating the positive aspects of local life and the people who help shape it.

Many newspapers are accused of being too downbeat and too enamoured by bad news – but that is not where the Chronicle sits.

Yes, we have to reflect the serious events in our area – it is our duty to do so – but we also believe in celebrating the positives, and you will find plenty of reasons to cheer in the nominations that follow.

We have no trophies or certificates to give to any of our winners/runners-up – it is not that sort of awards event. This is just our very public way of saying ‘thank you’ and ‘well done’ to an exceptional group of people who have made 2008 a special year locally.

Our winners and shortlisted runners-up have been chosen by all Chronicle editorial staff members and we hope they provide a real morale boost to everyone selected.

The winners of the two biggest awards – the man and woman of the year – turned out to be almost universal choices.

Grenville Jones, our first Man of the Year, has become a powerful and important ‘voice’ in our community. His work with all his choirs (past, present and indeed future) is enough to make him a worthy winner, but his success at leading the City of Bath Male Choir to TV success and his fantastic achievements with the Golden-Oldies put him in a league of his own in 2008.

The Golden-Oldies was a brilliant idea waiting to happen, but it took a man of rare vision, charm, enthusiasm and perseverance to do it. Grenville fitted that ‘job spec’ perfectly.

Equally deserving of praise is our Woman of the Year, Gitte Dawson. I can still remember when she came to see me with the idea of turning Bath into ‘pig city’ and I offered my enthusiasm, while privately thinking ‘can she really pull it off?’ Well she did – and how.

The King Bladud Pigs project dominated our city in the summer and delighted locals and visitors alike. Gitte was the driving force behind the project and deserves all our praise for leading this truly splendid community event.

Elsewhere we have honoured a host of individuals and organisations. Bath Rugby, Ben Rushgrove, Great Western Wine, Carol Spalding, Nicholas Coombes, Ann Garner, Martin Tracy, Paul Mattausch-Burrows, Dan Biggane and the irrepressible Loraine Morgan-Brinkhurst are among those who have earned our accolades this year.

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