WARRINGTON was graced by royalty when The Duke of Gloucester made a special trip to the Town Hall on Wednesday.

HRH presented The Queen's Award for Voluntary Service to Disability Awareness Day (DAD), Europe's largest annual voluntary event on disability.

And The Duke of Gloucester also paid a visit to the WDP's Centre For Independent Living, where he met with staff and volunteers to talk about some of the work done at the centre.

The Beaufort Street office, was swarming with security ahead of the duke's visit.

He is a first cousin to The Queen and 18th in line to the throne.

David Thompson, chairman of the Warrington Disability Partnership (WDP), collected the award on behalf of all those involved in July.

He said: "Today has gone amazingly well.

"This award is real recognition of all of the work that goes into Disability Awareness Day and a real testament of the hard work of the thousands of volunteers who have made the event a success."

Now in its 15th year, DAD is held at Walton Hall Gardens.

It aims to showcase the wide variety of services available to disabled people to help them live as independently as possible.

It also provides the opportunity to show what disabled people can do in the arts and sports fields.