Licensee Lynda Leigh of the George & Dragon in Flint, Wales, has received the top accolade with an Award of Merit from National Pubwatch.
She was nominated for the award, which acknowledges the valuable contributions that individuals have made to the success of Pubwatch schemes, by Councillor Michelle Perfect of Flintshire County Council and was supported by Sergeant Matt Subacchi of North Wales Police.
Lynda has been a licensee in the town since 1995, was a founder member of Flint Pubwatch and in 1997 was elected as its chairperson, a post she still holds today.
The nomination highlighted the positive work that Lynda had carried out since taking over the George & Dragon in 2016. The pub had a poor reputation for drugs and anti-social behaviour and faced closure. Lynda is credited with turning the pub around by excluding the troublemakers and taking a zero-tolerance approach.
She was subsequently approached by Flintshire North Neighbourhood Policing Team to join them in delivering important crime awareness messages to local school children.
Her partnership and community work have also been praised and she has been recognised for raising money for charity through events such as tug of war competitions. A charity football match she organised raised enough money to allow for the purchase of five defibrillator machines, which was enough to cover the whole town.
When the local market closed its doors, Lynda opened her car park to market traders to enable them to carry on trading in the town.
Flint has been described as being in an area of deprivation. During the Covid lockdown Lynda stepped in to deliver basic food parcels to the elderly and vulnerable. The support of the town was so great that she was able to deliver bags across the two high rise blocks of flats in the area. She then raised money to enable 500 takeaway meals to be delivered to NHS and Care Home workers over a two-week period.
Lynda said:
“I was gobsmacked when I got told I had won the award. I knew nothing about it until I got a telephone call. I was in tears and I was so proud.
“It has been a difficult few year’s but the whole town has pulled together. We have quite a lot of elderly local residents who are like family and we supported the NHS. You don’t do these things to be rewarded but it is great to be recognised.”
Councillor Perfect added:
“A huge thank you to Lynda for turning a no-go pub into a thriving community venue. She is a true hero of our town.”
