Chorley Council honour Bradley with Freedom of the Borough

Bradley Wiggins kisses his medal after winning the Men's Individual Time Trial Credit: PA

TOUR de France winner and newly-crowned Olympic champion Bradley Wiggins will return home to Eccleston with the honour of being offered the freedom of the borough in recognition of his amazing sporting achievements.

After seeing the inspiration his success has given to people in Chorley, and across the country, bosses at Chorley Council decided to offer him the greatest honour the authority can give to any individual.

The move comes amid a huge groundswell of support for Bradley Wiggins, who became Britain’s second gold-medal winner on Wednesday, just over a week after the amazing feat of winning the Tour de France.

Councillor Peter Wilson, Deputy Leader of Chorley Council, said: “It has been truly fantastic to see the effect Bradley Wiggins’ success has had on people, not just in Chorley, but across the country.

“It has been the one thing everyone has been talking about and it has been brilliant to see a Chorley resident become such an inspiration to others both here and across the world, acting as an ambassador for our borough.

“He has acted with such dignity and humility throughout the past few weeks in which he has won the most prestigious cycling event in the world, started the opening ceremony at the Olympic Games and then taken a gold medal in the time trial event.

“We thought it was only right we offered him the highest honour possible we can give to a resident.”

The authority is also planning to host a special event to allow Chorley residents to celebrate the success of Bradley and all the other local athletes participating in the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

“We think it’d be great to allow local people to celebrate in their successes so we’ll be contacting them when they return home and look to organise something to recognise their achievements,” said Councillor Wilson.

“We’ll let everyone know what we’re planning to do in due course and we wish the rest of our local athletes participating in the Olympic Games the best of luck over the next few days.”