What a year it's been - and like the best thrillers the rollercoaster has continued right to the end with vaccines, a cancelled Christmas and the prospect of a January lockdown. At the same time a completely separate rollercoaster has given us the ups and downs of the Brexit trade negotiations.

But as I write this message at Christmas, I want to focus on the biggest positive of a horrible year: the unexpected blossoming of community spirit. This week I had to do something immensely heart-warming: along with Colin Channon, Editor of the Farnham Herald, and Dr Chris Jagger from Godalming and Anne Downing from Haslemere I sat down to look through the 90 plus nominations we have received for the South West Surrey Community Heroes Awards scheme.

It would be an understatement to say we were bowled over with the amazing quality of the entries. It is always invidious to pick out individuals but to give you a flavour we had nominations for people who had set up food banks, run hot meal delivery services, organised for thousands of face masks to be made and even made scrubs for hospital staff (that was a 92 year old!). There were also many nominations for those who kept us smiling, including the staff of Ritual Coffee at Farncombe Station who magically seem to know the names of all their customers.

Then there were those working in our brilliant local NHS and care services, from GPs now busy giving out vaccines to care home managers who moved into their place of work to help keep residents safe. There were also submissions for church leaders who organised drive-through services (minus the hotdogs) and choirmasters who organised Zoom choir practices.

Nor did you forget parents with disabled children who have not been able to access normal support services, or those who bravely battled 'long CCovid.' And unsurprisingly there were numerous nominations for the leaders of the charities and voluntary organisations who have gone the extra mile and shown us all the true worth of community organisers.

At the same time this year things have been very busy for me and my team in Hindhead for many of the more 'normal' issues that most certainly have not gone away.

In Farnham we made excellent progress towards the transformation of the town centre with the establishing of the Farnham Project Board, due to report back on the potential for pedestrianisation in the early spring.

In Haslemere I found out on Friday that the water shortages of the summer are being remedied with a £55 million investment programme following much campaigning and a meeting I had with Sarah Bentley, the new CEO of Thames Water.

In Godalming the town's new flood relief scheme more than paid for itself shortly after its official launch when we had torrential rain and a rising water level - but all homes kept safe.

And in Dunsfold I was happy to play my part in helping stop the UKOG fracking application. Most importantly for all of us was the government decision to abandon the housing 'mutant algorithm' that would have meant a significant additional increase in housing approvals - thank you to Robert Jenrick for listening to me and many others.

Helping the NHS to get back on its feet after the pandemic will be a high priority for all of us in the New Year so it seems fitting to conclude this column by remembering the 620 frontline health and care staff who lost their lives from Covid across the country this year.

As we say about our war heroes at the two-minute silence that Farnham gave to the world: 'We will remember them.'

Wishing you a safe Christmas and a hopefully better New Year.

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