The British Horse Society (BHS) is pleased to announce that John Greenway, the Ryedale, North Yorkshire MP who was responsible for steering the BHS initiated Ragwort Control Bill successfully through Parliament, has won the inaugural ePolitix Charity Champion Award for Animal Welfare. The awards ceremony, which took place last night (2 December) at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, London, was attended by a large number of MPs, Peers, charity representatives and the Charities Commission.

Mr Greenway was delighted with his award and in his acceptance speech he paid tribute to the BHS and to Alun Michael, Minister for Rural Affairs, and his team at Defra for their help and support. He added that he had not needed much persuading to introduce the Bill following his success in the Private Members' Ballot last year. Thanking ePolitix for including animal welfare as a category at the awards ceremony he told the audience, "In June every year you can stand on the hill and look down on Ryedale Show. It has six rings to accommodate all the horses that come from miles around to take part. It's obvious that these are much loved animals and sadly, too many horses die from ragwort poisoning."

The BHS had nominated John Greenway for the award and as a result he was one of four MPs short-listed in that category, the others being Norman Baker, Tony Banks and the MP responsible for introducing the Fireworks Bill, Bill Tidey.

BHS chief executive, Kay Driver, said, "We are very pleased that John's success at ensuring the Ragwort Control Bill reached the statute book has been recognised in this award. By doing so he has paved the way for a code of practice that will be admissible in evidence and will provide, for the first time, a strategy by which landowners and occupiers can formulate policy for effective Ragwort control.

"We will never know how many horses' lives have been saved thanks to John but he has earned the gratitude of every horse owner in the country. We thank ePolitix for introducing the award, recognising the important work that parliamentarians do on behalf of charities such as the BHS. John is a deserving winner of the very first ePolitix Charity Champion animal welfare award."

Mr Greenway was presented with his award by Keith Young, Chairman of Parliamentary Communications Ltd, co-host of the ePolitix Charity Champion Awards ceremony.

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