BRIGHTON and Hove Albion’s official charity has been recognised in Parliament after winning a top award.

The Seagulls have been named South East Checkatrade community club of the year for their work across the county.

A delegation from Albion In The Community (AITC)was invited to the House of Commons to celebrate alongside other regional winners of the English Football League awards category.

Martin Perry, chairman of trustees, Matt Dorn, chief executive officer, and Phil Baldwin, head of finance and operations, attended the ceremony where they were presented with the South East prize for the second season in a row.

Matt Dorn, chief executive officer at AITC, was delighted to see the charity recognised again.

He said: “This award is testament to the professionalism and dedication displayed by our staff on a daily basis.

“I would also like to recognise the outstanding efforts of all the people who participate in our many programmes. Without their hard work AITC would not be the success that it is.

“Really, this award is for the 30,000 people we worked with over the last year.”

The six regional winners were selected by an independent judging panel.

The panel included The Times’ chief football writer Henry Winter, Sam Haylen, football policy adviser at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Sport England’s strategic lead for relationships Greg Clements.

AITC was commended for the wide range of its work and the creativity of its programmes.

The charity worked with more than 30,000 people in Sussex over the last 12 months and now runs around 60 different projects and programmes.

EFL Trust director of operations Mike Evans praised the work completed by all six winning clubs via their community trusts.

He said: “Without question this was the strongest year we have ever had in terms of quality of community club of the year applications, giving the judging panel some really tough decisions.

“All of our club trusts should be rightly proud of their efforts and for the six selected clubs it’s a tremendous honour to be recognised in Parliament and to be showcased in the House of Commons.

“They are deserving winners and great ambassadors for the work of all EFL clubs in their communities across the country.”

The overall winner will now be announced at the EFL Awards on Sunday, April 9.

For more information on AITC visit www.albioninthecommunity.org.uk.

Or you can follow the charity on Twitter at @AlbionintheComm.