Queen's Birthday Honours for Essex foster carers

Edward and Edna Pratt have both been honoured for services to children and families

An Essex couple, who have fostered more than 200 children, have been appointed MBEs in the Queen's Birthday Honours.

Edna and Edward Pratt, from Leigh-on-Sea, worked with Barnet and Southend-on-Sea Borough Councils for 35 years.

Mrs Pratt said: "We do it because we want to give other children a little bit of what ours have got.

"On the whole it's been rewarding and we hope we've rewarded the children as well," said her husband.

Essex economist Kate Barker will be made a Dame

Many children fostered by the couple were newborn babies, some with disabilities.

One child, who has cerebral palsy, won wheelchair dance competitions with their support.

Others honoured in Essex included riding instructor Anne Mitchell has also been appointed an MBE for her work with disabled children.

Essex-based economist Kate Barker CBE will be made a Dame.

OBE appointees included Colchester's Clive Stobbs, chief executive of Autism Anglia, while those becoming MBEs included Colchester's Eileen Davidson, chair of the Labour Party for the east of England, and Roy Bailey, an honorary senior lecturer in economics at the University of Essex.

Services to bowls have been recognised with Clacton-based David Mitchell-Gears, the chairman of Bowls England, also being appointed MBE.