SWINDON has held its first-ever awards ceremony to honour the cream of the town's youth and its most stalwart youth workers.

The volunteer stars were given the red carpet treatment by local dignitaries, including Swindon's mayor, Bishop, and the Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire at the 2001 Swindon Youth Awards.

In all, 45 people received awards in a ceremony designed to recognise the vital work that young people and older workers do for the local community.

Among those honoured was Yvonne Jefferies, whose 10-year battle with cancer ended on Monday night in Prospect Hospice on Monday night four days before she was to have collected her award.

Mrs Jefferies, who was 65, was best known for being the producer of Swindon's Scout and Guide Gang Show for more than 25 years, but also served scouting for decades, including a stint as district scout commissioner.

The ceremony started with a minute's silence in her memory.

The Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire, Lieut Gen Sir Maurice Johnston, told the audience of proud award winners, family and friends that they had "my absolute humble praise for the work that you do."

He said that the volunteer workers of today were even more deserving than those of yesteryear, as they had to put up with far more bureaucracy and suspicion than in the past. "It's not easy," he said.

"You are hamstrung by a whole raft of regulations that say 'thou shalt' and 'thou shalt not.'

"I admire you with all my heart and I'm enormously privileged to be here and to be part of it."

Swindon Council's director of education, Dr Mike Lusty, said that volunteers did important work for the Swindon community and deserved the pat on the back the awards had given them. They help to address the needs of many of our most disadvantaged young people," he said.

"It's vital that some recognition is made of the invaluable work that's provided by youth workers. And I think everybody in this chamber should be enormously proud of the young people we have here this evening."

The awards were organised by Swindon Youth Partnership, whose chairman Stephen Chandler, said: "Wiltshire have held these awards annually for a long time and it is now the right time for Swindon to hold its own awards."

Awards co-ordinator, Nigel Sharp, added: "We hope this will become an annual event, particularly as over 90 per cent of the town's youth work is carried out by the voluntary sector."