Council acknowledged for regeneration work with award nomination
The hard work of a district council to become a better council has been recognised through a shortlisting for a prestigious local government award.
Lichfield District Council is among a handful of authorities to feature in the ‘Most Improved Council’ category at the LGC Awards 2024.
The annual awards, which seek to identify, showcase, and celebrate the finest examples of innovation and quality delivered daily by councils, always receive a high number of entries.
In 2021, the council set out to create a more confident, engaged, and capable workforce and challenge old-fashioned working practices to enable improvements in services to residents and this has been recognised by the awarding body.
Examples of the changes this has resulted in include significantly improved leisure centres in Lichfield and Burntwood, investing £10 million in a new leisure centre and £5 million in a joint venture to bring Everyman cinemas to the district.
Other investments have included £1 million allocated so far this year through the Disabled Facilities Grants, significantly more than in the previous five years, and achieving £1.7 million of cashable savings helping to keep council tax low compared to neighbouring authorities.
Leader of the Council, Councillor Doug Pullen said: “I’m delighted the council has been shortlisted in the ‘Most Improved Council’ category at this year’s LGC Awards.
"It is a testament to the progress we have made to date.
“We’ve improved the way the council is structured and led and have worked hard to create a strong ‘can do’ ethos across the workforce.
"Our officers have embraced these changes and we’re benefitting enormously from this internally.
"Of course, the most important beneficiaries of our improvement must be our residents.
"We have more to do; we want to be a council our residents are proud of.
"We know which services still need improvement and our Chief Executive is focussed on ensuring those services improve.”
The winners will be announced at a special awards ceremony at Grosvenor House hotel in London on Wednesday, June 12.
