A Toxteth-born European Championship winning footballer and her champion boxer sister are among those to receive civic honours from the city of Liverpool.
A formal recommendation has been made that Liverpool Council confers the title of Citizen of Honour of the City of Liverpool to four people from across the city for their contribution to its cultural, sporting and educational advancement. Ahead of the meeting of the full local authority next Wednesday, it has been recommended by the council’s Freedom Panel to award Nikita Parris and her sister Natasha Jonas with the honour.
Nikita, 28, was part of the England Women’s EURO 2022 winning squad last summer at Wembley and has scored goals across Europe picking up silverware in France with Olympique Lyonnais and Manchester City back at home. The Toxteth native began her career at Tiber Football Centre with Kingsley United and went onto become the FA Barclays Women’s Super League record goal scorer.
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Her older sister Natasha, 38, is also recommended for the honour, first introduced in 2008. She became the first British female boxer to compete in an Olympic Games at London in 2012, reaching the quarter final.
Natasha currently holds the IBF World Super Welter, WBC World Super Welter and WBO World Super Welter belts following her last bout in November last year. The Citizen of Honour award was introduced 15 years ago by Liverpool Council to recognise individuals from across the city for their individual contributions.
Among previous recipients are Pete Price, Billy Butler and most recently, poet Levi Tafari. Joining Natasha and Nikita on next week’s honour recommendation are Yaw Owusu, curator of the Liverpool International Music Festival (LIMF) and military veteran Bob Blanchard.
Yaw, who sits on the Liverpool City Region Music Board, curated the Liverpool Against Racism festival last year, bringing together stakeholders from across the city for a week-long programme of events. He has worked with Liverpool FC, Google, MTV, BET, MOBO, BBC, Universal Records, Levi’s, Warner Music, while also helping to launch the careers of numerous artists.
Bob Blanchard, who is also a school governor at North Liverpool Academy, was chairman of the Liverpool Veterans Project between 2011 and 2018 and helped the city council develop its first strategy for ex-service personnel. Bob’s work led to the signing of the community covenant in 2012.
Should councillors agree when they meet next week, the four recipients will receive the Freedom Scroll presented at a civic function hosted by the Lord Mayor. It has also been recommended that the Freedom Roll of Association by bestowed upon the Liverpool Scottish Regimental Association at the same meeting.
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