A police sergeant based in north Birmingham has received a national award for helping establish a canoe club that saw more than 3,000 local people take to the water in 2012.

Sergeant Si Hensley, responsible for policing in Sutton Coldfield town centre, received the 2012 community volunteer award at a prestigious awards evening held by Canoe England.

Sergeant Hensley received the award due to his tireless work rejuvenating Brookvale Park and lake in 2012. His enthusiasm and work with local partners led to the introduction of a weekly canoe club on the lake run by Nechells based charityfree@last.

The club, which initially received police funding to purchase kayaks and equipment, saw thousands of people, young and old, visit the park and lake throughout the summer months.

As well as funding this initiative, Simon and members of his team regularly took to the water in their own time to help reinforce and rebuild the island in the middle of the lake alongside other willing volunteers.

A nine hour canoe-a-thon was held by the team in which they managed to row approximately 21 miles - the equivalent of Dover to Calais!

This enabled the canoe club and park to raise further funds to improve the local facilities.

Simon proudly collected the award at a national Canoe England ceremony held in Nottingham last month. At the awards ceremony, he spent time speaking with London 2012 Olympic heroes including gold medallist Etienne Stott and silver medallist David Florence.

Sergeant Hensley, who was part of the Stockland Green neighbourhood policing team at the time of the canoe club opening, said: "I"m deeply honoured to have been recognised for my part in the Brookvale Park regeneration but could not have achieved any of this work without the help of our local partners and residents.