A SOUTH Lakes community stalwart is delighted to have been recognised in the Queen's Birthday Honours list.

Anne Hall, of Coniston, is to be made an MBE for services to the Lakeland communities.

The 74-year-old has been a Coniston parish councillor for more than 30 years and she has been on South Lakeland District Council for Coniston and Crake Valley since 2000.

The mum, grandmother and great-grandmother is passionate about promoting affordable housing in South Lakeland. Councillor Hall is a trustee of Lakeland Housing Trust and she was also a Lake District National Park Authority representative on the Cumbria Housing Executive.

She is also chairman of The Ruskin Museum and Institute Trust, in Coniston. Cllr Hall formerly ran the Coniston Hospice Support Group, before St Mary's Hospice, in Ulverston, was formed, she has raised money for South Cumbria branch of the NSPCC for 40 years, and she visits older people in the community.

Cllr Hall was a Cumbria Life Magazine lifetime achievement award winner in 2009, and in 2015 she was named in the top 20 community champions in Cumbria by the magazine.

For her 50th birthday she completed a charity cycle ride from London to Brussels, she walked five days the Great Wall of China for deaf children for her 60th birthday, and celebrated her 70th birthday with best pal Pat Darragh with four weeks in New Zealand, culminating in a tandem paraglide of High Mountain in Queenstown.

She was a North-West Evening Mail community correspondent for Coniston for some 20 years and, interestingly, Cllr Hall has lived without a TV since 2000, preferring to listen to music.

She says she gets her sense of service from her mum, Bessie Hutchinson, who ran a butchers shop on her own during the Second World War.

The timing of the MBE letter was poignant as the announcement arrived in May, on the birthday of her late husband, Barry Hall, who died two years ago.

Speaking about the MBE honour, Cllr Hall said: "I'm thrilled. It's wonderful recognition.

"People and communities are my passion. At the root of my passion is keeping the Lakeland communities active."