Residents and council staff work together to help disadvantaged children

Staff and councillors collated and donated hundreds of Christmas presents which will be handed over by members of the council’s social care teams in time for Christmas.

The appeal was led by Paul Irwin, deputy cabinet member for transportation and was in addition to presents collected and donated by the members of Aylesbury’s Salvation Army Church, as well as Olympic gold medal winning long-jumper Greg Rutherford, and his partner Susie Verrill, who had carried out their own Christmas present appeal.

Cllr Irwin said: “I was overwhelmed and very moved by the kindness shown by local people and I wanted to do something myself so I organised a Christmas present appeal, asking staff and councillors to donate a small present each.

“Our employees have risen to the occasion and I would like to thank every one of them for their generosity in providing all the presents for our disadvantaged children.

“We have had hundreds of presents and we are totally overwhelmed by the response from our staff.

“I’d like to also thank Aylesbury Salvation Army Church and local residents including Greg and Susie for their commitment to give others a good Christmas.

“It will mean so much to all the children on Christmas morning to wake up to brand new presents, knowing how much people actually care about them.”