Inspirational business and community leader Martin Rigley received another accolade in the New Year Honours — while grassroots football champion Graham Hall has been made an MBE .

Martin, of Sutton, chairperson of Discover Ashfield and a previous winner of the Outstanding Contribution Award at the Mansfield & Ashfield 2020 Business Awards, was made an OBE for for services to the East Midlands Covid-19 response and to the community in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.

The managing director of Sutton-based Lindhurst Engineering was among those spearheading campaigns to get NHS workers the necessary PPE at the height of the pandemic.

Martin’s OBE adds to an MBE he received in 2016 for for services to Business and Innovation. He is passionate about promoting Ashfield as a great place to run a business, live, visit, raise a family, and be educated.

Graham, who has been involved in local football for more than 40 years, is best known as the secretary of the former Chad Mansfield Youth Football League for 38 years before it closed in 2019.

In its heyday the league had more than 350 clubs and Graham, who first joined the league’s committee in 1970, is still on the committee in the hope that the league will return.

The 72-year-old Warsop man, who helped to launch Meden Vale Colts a few years ago, is a vice-president of the Nottinghamshire FA.

He began volunteering in 1970, starting a football team in Warsop that became Welbeck Welfare FC, where he was involved for 46 years.

In December Graham was named John Slater Volunteer of the Year at the Mansfield Sports Recognition Awards, when it was also revealed that he had been awarded the Paul Harris Fellowship Award by Mansfield Rotary.