Mark Blundell, Lord-Lieutenant of Merseyside, accompanied by six Deputy Lieutenants and the Mayor of Sefton, presented the Birkdale Community Hub and Library with The King’s Award for Voluntary Service 2024 on Wednesday 12^th February in a ceremony at Southport and Birkdale Sports Club.

News of recipients of The King’s Award for Voluntary Service broke in November 2024, and the ceremony held last week was the formal presentation of the award. The King’s Award for Voluntary Service is the highest award a local voluntary group can receive in the UK and is equivalent to an MBE.

A volunteer-run charity based in Birkdale, Birkdale Community Hub and Library was founded in 2012 (initially as the Birkdale Library Action Group) by a group of Birkdale residents when it was announced that the local council-run library was closing. The group worked tirelessly to find a new premises to reopen a library and community hub and were extremely grateful to Merseyrail when they were offered The Station Master’s House in the centre of Birkdale village. The group, now a registered charity, then proceeded to raise the funding needed to transform the building into the community asset it is today. The library and community hub opened for click-and-collect book services in January 2021 in the midst of the Covid pandemic, and finally opened its doors to the public in July 2021.

Over the past three years, the charity has thrived and over 2000 people have signed up for free membership of the library. Birkdale Community Hub and Library is entirely volunteer run, with over 100 volunteers all contributing to the charity either through covering shifts in the library, acting as Trustees, running one of the many activities or contributing to some of the ‘back of house’ functions such as communications, event organising and fund-raising.  

A volunteer attending the formal ceremony commented: “We know that Birkdale Community Hub and Library does a great job, but hearing the Lord-Lieutenant of Merseyside talk about the work that we do was really emotional and made us all realise how special the charity is.”

Deputy Lieutenant John Roberts, one of the assessors who visited the charity a year ago as part of the award assessment process, read out a long list of all of the activities provided by the charity which provides a full schedule of activities six days a week including warm spaces, a home lending service, a creative writing club, jigsaw library, children’s rhyme and story time to name just a few, as well as operating a traditional lending library.

Birkdale Community Hub and Library is one of only 281 local charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups in the UK to receive the prestigious award for 2024. Their work, along with others from across the UK, reminds us of all the ways fantastic volunteers are contributing to their local communities and working to make life better for those around them.

Phil Margham, Chair of the Trustees of the Birkdale Community Hub and Library commented: “We are truly honoured to receive The King’s Award for Voluntary Service, especially as we are still a relatively young charity. The Award is testament to the dedication of every single one of our volunteers, past and present, and we are absolutely delighted that they have been recognised for all their hard work. We believe that Birkdale Community Hub and Library provides a unique and vital service within our community that benefits many local people, day in and day out. Thanks must also go to all of those involved in the nomination and awards process.”

The King’s Award for Voluntary Service aims to recognise outstanding work by local volunteer groups to support their communities. It was created in 2002 to celebrate Her Majesty The late Queen’s Golden Jubilee and, was continued following the accession of His Majesty the King. 2024 marks the second year of The King’s Award for Voluntary Service.