Tonbridge and Malling Borough CouncilCommunity AwardsKings HillPaula HudgellVolunteersTony Hudgell

Tonbridge and Malling's Community Awards Honour Dozens of Local Heroes - Including a Double Winner the Whole Country Knows

By Meggie•Tonbridge & Malling•October 23, 2026
Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council has handed out its Community Awards for a second year, recognising the volunteers, groups and organisations the council says "quietly dedicate their time to helping others" across the borough. Among this year's winners is a name with a far bigger profile than most: Kings Hill's Paula Hudgell OBE, who took home two of this year's awards.

Behind a few of the names

Awards went out across six categories, and most of the 40-odd winners won't be household names even locally - which is rather the point of a prize built around nominations from neighbours rather than headlines. A handful give a flavour of what's actually being rewarded. FEAST, which picked up Outstanding Community Group honours alongside more than 20 other organisations, is the food bank run out of Tonbridge Methodist Church. SALUS, the Community Safety Award's other winner alongside Hudgell, is a youth outreach project that's spent the year doing detached work with teenagers in Snodland and Ditton - 415 of them, by its own count - as an alternative to them simply being moved on. D.A.V.S.S., short for Domestic Abuse Volunteer Support Services, runs a West Kent helpline for men and women experiencing abuse. On the gentler end, Community Cycleworks - the CIC behind free bike-fix sessions and family rides at Tonbridge Racecourse Sportsground - and Tonbridge Repair Café, which won the Environmental Contribution Award for teaching people to mend rather than bin their belongings, both made the list too. The youngest winners were siblings Mark and Millie Wascher-Mganga, who took Young Community Champion.

The full winners list

Outstanding Community Achievement Award: Paula Hudgell

Community Safety Award: Paula Hudgell, SALUS

Young Community Champion: Mark Wascher-Mganga and Millie Wascher-Mganga

Environmental Contribution Award: The Haysden Volunteer Community Group, Walderslade Community Litter Picking Team, Tonbridge Repair Café

Individual Volunteer of the Year: Matt Sargent, Eloise Edmonston, Sally Pearce, James Pavlou, Les Herbert, Chris and Linda Howick, Jacqueline Smith, Chris Richards, Alan Ritchie, Teresa Seamer, Richard Hill, John Anderson, Debbie King

Outstanding Community Group: Riverwalk Music Festival, Tonbridge Girlguiding Division Team, The Swan Community Project, Tonbridge Lions Club, FEAST, Tonbridge Daily, Walk Leaders for Walk 4 Wellbeing at Tonbridge and Malling, Tonbridge Baptist Church Volunteers, Tonbridge Model Engineering Society, Tonbridge Historical Society, Tonbridge Rotary Club, Royal British Veterans Enterprise, The Scotts Project Trust, Oaks Specialist College, West Kent Mind, D.A.V.S.S. (Domestic Abuse Volunteer Support Services), North & West Kent Citizens Advice, The Hygiene Bank, The East Malling Centre, Age UK (Tonbridge, Maidstone and Sevenoaks), Community Cycleworks, Imago, Involve Kent, Manor Park Junior Parkrun

A double winner the whole country knows

The borough's own Outstanding Community Achievement Award and its Community Safety Award both went to the same person: Paula Hudgell OBE, of Kings Hill. Hudgell and her husband Mark adopted Tony Hudgell as a baby in 2016, after he suffered catastrophic injuries at the hands of his birth parents that led to both his legs being amputated. She went on to campaign successfully for 'Tony's Law' - tougher sentencing for child cruelty and neglect, enacted in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 - working with the borough's then MP, Tom Tugendhat, to get it through Parliament. In February 2026 a further campaign by the Hudgells secured an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill creating a new child safety register, modelled on the sex offenders' register, for parents convicted of neglect or abuse. Hudgell was appointed OBE for services to children in the 2023 New Year Honours.

What the council said

Cllr Des Keers, Cabinet Member for Community Services, said: "The success of our second Community Awards demonstrates just how many people across Tonbridge and Malling quietly dedicate their time to helping others. Reading through the nominations was inspiring. Every winner, and indeed every nominee, has made a real difference to the lives of residents and helped strengthen their local community. These awards are an opportunity to say thank you to the volunteers, community groups and organisations whose efforts often happen behind the scenes but have a lasting impact on people across the borough." Source: Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council, Wikipedia, Tony Hudgell, Tonbridge and Malling Community Safety Partnership Plan, on Salus, Community Cycleworks
Tonbridge and Malling Borough CouncilCommunity AwardsKings HillPaula HudgellVolunteersTony Hudgell