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21
Nov 2024
Is civic recognition for Harrogate’s Rachel Daly finally on its way?
The leader of North Yorkshire Council has said moves are underway to bestow a civic honour on Harrogate’s Rachel Daly.
Ex-England footballer Daly is the town’s most successful ever sports star: she won the Women’s European Championships in 2022 and reached the final of the Women’s World Cup the following year.
She won the Women’s Super League Golden Boot for scoring the most goals in 2022/23 and finished 10th in the 2023 Ballon d’Or — which means she was rated the 10th best female player in the world.
But she hasn’t received any recognition from the council.
This prompted Killinghall Nomads Junior Football Club, the club where she started playing, to start a petition in conjunction with the Stray Ferret calling on the council to officially recognise their former player.
The petition received more than the required 500 signatures to make it eligible for debate at the council's Harrogate and Knaresborough area constituency committee.
The committee voted in favour of recommending the council "develops a civic honours-type scheme for the council and that Rachel Daly's achievements are recognised through the new scheme".
Area constituency committees are advisory bodies to the council, which meant it was up to the ruling executive to decide whether to act on the recommendation.
One year later, and with no sign of progress, we contacted the council for an update.
Conservative council leader Carl Les said:
This is a piece of work that is underway and we will be discussing it before the end of the year. We have included the issue of street naming new developments as well where each former district had a different approach and that has added some time to the process.
Daly, 32, who announced her international retirement in April, scored for Aston Villa Women in the 3-2 victory over Crystal Palace last weekend.
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