Please support this petition to make Jean Alexander the first individual women to be given the Freedom of the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton.
The mayor of Sefton, Iain Brodie – Browne is the is leading the campaign to make this happen.
He said: “When I became Mayor of Sefton a year ago I had a little list of things I wanted to do. I had a vision that the Mayoralty could reach out and confer civic recognition and thanks to people in our community who have often been excluded.
I was delighted to be the first Mayor to visit the Mosque, to host the first civic reception for the LGBT+ people, visit projects for the people who are homeless and to hold a reception to mark World Mental Health Day.
“One item on my little list I have not ticked off. I sometimes sit in the Mayor’s Parlour and look at the list of those who have had the Freedom of the Borough conferred on them. After 40 years there is not one women’s name. I have politely pointed this out and made a firm suggestion to the powers that be. I got no response. I think now is the time that this should be rectified.”
“Since the Sefton was established in 1974 only soldiers and sportsmen have been given the highest honour that the borough can bestow. Surely there are people from the Arts, Science, Industry, Academia and other walks of life who deserve this recognition. Above all else surely there are women who deserve this honour.”
Jean Alexander was an active citizen of the borough as well as being known to British television viewers as Hilda Ogden in the soap opera Coronation Street, a role she played from 1964 until 1987, and also as Auntie Wainwright in the long-running sitcom Last of the Summer Wine from 1988 to 2010. For her role in Coronation Street, she won the 1985 Royal Television Society Award for Best Performance, and received a 1988 BAFTA TV Award nomination for Best Actress.
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