A big week for BBC Surrey

Every Saturday morning I present a breakfast show on BBC Surrey, my local station. I've made good friends among colleagues and the station's contributors and audience, who use BBC Surrey as the community resource it should be.

Last night many of those friends were in one room at the South Lodge Hotel near Horsham to celebrate some of the outstanding people who dedicate themselves to making the world a better place.

I hosted a table with two nominees, one of whom was a 17 year old called Zoe Giles. Zoe spent two years tackling council bureaucrats who were trying to close her local youth centre down. Thanks to her efforts the centre was eventually given a guaranteed future.

PC Gaynor Grout

The other nominee was PC Gaynor Grout, a woman who has given her entire working life to community policing and appears to be, in the eyes of her colleagues and the people she serves, a very effective police officer.

It was a good evening - catching up with colleagues and hearing some wonderful stories of courage, bravery, kindness and generosity of human spirit.

Some of the same people who were working late into the night last night were up early this morning to attend the formal switch-on of BBC Surrey's first DAB digital transmitter at Epsom Downs racecourse.

l-r Mark Carter, Sara David, Sir Paul Beresford MP

This has been a long time coming. Digital roll-out was hit by the financial crisis, and a significant amount of reorganising was required before it could get going again. For someone who lives in North Surrey, where the FM signal can be very ropey, I am confident DAB will bring many thousands more listeners to BBC Surrey, and it finally means I can get a decent signal in my house!

If you live in Surrey or North East Hampshire, give BBC Surrey a try. The presenting team are particularly strong at the moment and the station seems to have more journalistic ambition than ever.

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Copyright for all photos: BBC Surrey