Christchurch and East Dorset Councils recognised for Shared services.

Last night after a long day I together with the Leader at East Dorset journeyed to the London Park Lane Hilton to see if the Councils were to be successful having been nominated and short listed for an award from the Municipal Journal. This is a prestigious occasion requiring the usual penguin suit and black tie, not something I relish doing mid-week but as it is quite an acheivement to get nominated and even more so to get short listed we went along to hear our fate. Our catagory was 'shared services' so as we have for the last eighteen months been working as two councils under one management, we do have a good record in this area more so because we have acheived a great deal in a very short time. Judges were impressed with our corporate direction including the joint plan and rationalising services to the benefit of our residents. More details will immerge but I can tell you that we were ''highly commended'' by the independant judges, sadly this meant we did not get the 'oscar' but we will have a certificate which I suppose is the equivelent of second place. Considering we were selected from a whole host of Councils acroos the Country I think we can be really proud of that as an acheivement acknowledged by our peers.