Minutes:
The Chair informed the Council of a number of successes in recent awards, as follows:
· the Council’s building and facilitates maintenance team had recently won the Best Service Team of the Year in the Facilities Management and Building Cleaning Service category at the 2019 APSE awards. The team had been praised for their continuous drive in providing an excellent service to customers;
· the Payroll and Employee Services Team had achieved re-accreditation by the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals following a rigorous external assessment which incorporated new, more stringent assessment criteria developed in partnership with HM Revenues and Customs. The re-accreditation was more notable given that Durham County Council was one of only seven English local authorities, and the only council in the region to achieve the accreditation for Payroll and Employee Services as part of the Payroll Assurance Scheme. It was the third time that the team had achieved the status after first being accredited in 2015 and then reaccredited in 2017; and finally
· County Durham had once again been recognised in the Northumbria in Bloom Awards for 2019 including gold medals for:
o Durham City (best small city and joint best city for its collaboration with the Durham BID);
o Wharton Park (best park);
o Kynren and Hardwick Park (best tourist/visitor attraction);
o Bishop Auckland (best large town);
o Sedgefield (best small town);
o Tanfield (best overall entry, the Percy Boydell Trophy, best small village);
In other areas:
o Coundon and Fishburn had been awarded silver gilts in the best large village category;
o Sacriston and Waldridge had been awarded silver gilts in the best small towns category;
o Seaham had been recognised as the most improved entry;
o Durham Botanical Gardens, Durham Railway Station and Belmont Scrambles had been commended, along with community champions singled out for special awards in both Belmont and Middleton in Teesdale;
o Schools including, Durham Gilesgate Primary, St. Joseph’s Primary in Coundon, St. Joseph’s RC in Stanley, and Hardwick Primary in Sedgefield, had also been recognised for their efforts.
The Chair asked the Council to join with her in placing on record their congratulations to everybody involved, most notably all of the Council staff, volunteers, community groups, schools and individuals to help showcase the very best of County Durham.
Finally, the Chair reminded the Council that a briefing about Lumiere 2019 would be held in Committee Room 2 at 1 p.m. The Chair also asked Councillors to take the time to visit colleagues from the County Durham Fire and Rescue Service at their stand in the Council Chamber Foyer which contained information about fire safety and the commercial trading arm of the Fire Service.