Royal garden party honour for helping to keep residents safe during the pandemic

The head of public protection at Lancaster City Council had the honour of being invited to Buckingham Palace last week for helping to keep residents safe during the pandemic.

Fiona Inston attended the Queen’s Garden Party last Wednesday (May 18) after being nominated for her ‘significant contributions’ to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities’ Covid-19 Compliance Working Group.

Throughout the pandemic Ms Inston was involved a range of areas such as commenting on draft guidance, policies and helping to shape covid legislation, such as on event safety, covid passes and self-isolation.

Locally, she also chaired a local pandemic resilience group subgroup, focussing on business compliance across Lancashire.

The annual garden parties are traditionally held by the monarch to give her an opportunity to speak to people who have made a positive impact in their community.

The Queen was unable to attend this year, but The Earl and Countess of Wessex, The Duchess of Cambridge and Princess Alexandra, former chancellor of Lancaster University, were all in attendance.

Ms Inston, who has worked in public protection for almost 20 years, works closely with the Local Government Association and is in a joint role with Lancashire County Council's public health team.

Speaking after the event she said: “It was a big, but very pleasant surprise to receive the invite. It was a great experience and lovely to be surrounded by so many people who had made a difference to their communities.

“The pandemic brought many challenges, but always my focus was to ensure that we were keeping people safe. My work with the Compliance Working Group included influencing and policy and strategy at a national levels, working with civil servants to provide constructive honest feedback on how it would work within communities/ businesses reflecting on local learning.”

Last updated: 24 May 2022