Christine Parsloe was named the Public Servant of the Year.
An inspirational manager from Merton was recognised with a national award last week.
Christine Parsloe, Merton Council’s leisure and culture manager, was awarded the Guardian’s Public Servant of the Year award, the top public servant prize in the country.
The public voted for Ms Parsloe, who has previously won the council’s employee of the year, beating four other nominees to the prize.
“Christine truly deserves this award as she is a real public service champion and a fantastic ambassador for Merton Council and the local community,” said leader of Merton Council, Stephen Alambritis.
“Thanks very much to everyone who voted and did their bit to make sure that Christine’s hard work is recognised.”
She had an important role in bringing the London Olympic and Paralympic Games to Merton in 2012 with next to no funding.
Ms Parsloe opened a BMX track in Mitcham, two beach volleyball courts at Wimbledon Park and bought the Olympic torch relay to the borough.
According to the council, 116,000 children have tried out activities at Wimbledon Park’s watersports centre and 147,000 people lined the streets of Merton as the Olympic torch relay passed through.
Ms Parsloe also arranged for the Queen to visit Mitcham during the Diamond Jubilee celebrations.
Chair of London Councils, Mayor Jules Pipe, said: “We would like to congratulate Christine Parsloe on winning Society Guardian Public Servant of the Year Award.
“Christine’s innovative work to create a cultural and sporting Olympic legacy in Merton is incredibly inspirational and has really captured the feel-good factor of the Games to make a positive difference to the lives of residents long after the Olympic closing ceremony.
“Christine’s work is an excellent example of how, despite significant budget cuts, London’s boroughs continue to deliver improvements in services to make London the world class city it is.”
Earlier this year, Merton were named the Best Achieving Council at the MJ Awards.
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