A TRIO of Cumbrian residents can now officially fly the flag for Britain after successfully securing citizenship.

Stood next to the Union Jack and a framed photograph of the Queen, Anna Parker, Byju Chacko and Wojciech Demczuk were awarded their new statuses in a ceremony at Kendal’s county hall.

Anna Parker is originally from Poland but moved to the UK 12 years ago and now lives in Elterwater.

“I wasn’t quite sure what to do with myself after university so I thought I would come to the UK and see how it goes,” she said. “I never planned on staying but now here we are.”

She started working at The Britannia Inn in Elterwater and is now a live-in manager with her husband Andrew.

“We’ve made it our home, that’s where we live,” the 37-year-old said.

“Citizenship is everything. I have dual nationality and I’m actually a part of the United Kingdom. We do a lot for the community around us and are involved, so this is just a stamp that we do belong to the community.”

Byju Chacko, whose roots lie in India, moved to Kendal in 2009 in order to work as a nurse.

He is now married to a Scottish woman called Jamie, employed at Heron Hill Care Home as a ward manager and has two children.

“It’s a beautiful place,” he said. “I have never felt any problems at all, I’ve always been welcome. I have no plans to move anywhere else.”

He added that it was a long process to get citizenship status and the life in the UK test required him to undertake hours of revision.

Wojciech Demczuk moved to the UK in 2004 from Poland and is now the general manager at the Nab Cottage bed and breakfast in Rydal.

He was unable to speak English before he moved to the UK but thanks to time spent watching the BBC, he is now fluent.

And with Brexit around the corner, it was important to him that he secured citizenship status to the country that is ‘home’.

“Brexit is coming so I thought I wanted to do it now,” he said. “It was the last important thing - either you do it now or it might be more difficult later.”