St Ives Town Council has been awarded the Quality Gold Award by the National Association of Local Councils (NALC).
Front row, left to right: councillors Senara Wilson-Hodges and Ken Messenger, mayor Johnnie Wells, town clerk Louise Dwelly, and councillors Tony Harris, Kirsty Arthur, and Paul Viney. Back row: councillors James Ryall, Michael Evamy, Sinead McNamee, Andrew Mitchell, Rachael Gaunt, Charlie Hodson, and Steve Hynes. Photograph: Steve Hynes
It is the only council in Cornwall to be accredited as a Quality Gold council, and one of only 50 of the 10,000 councils in the country.
“The Quality Gold Award demonstrates a council is at the forefront of best practice and achieves excellence in governance, community leadership, and council development,” says the NALC.
“Quality Gold councils provide leadership for their communities, bring people together, have excellent business planning processes, ensuring value for money, as well as constantly seek new innovations and opportunities to improve. They highlight the very best we, as a sector, can achieve for our communities.”
St Ives mayor, Johnnie Wells, said: “We are a Gold Standard council! The councillors give up their time for free to make St Ives the best place it can be. Something we wouldn’t be able to do without the help and support of our, now officially, Gold Standard officers, and clerk, Lou.
“I am chuffed to be part of a council who are actually getting stuff done in St Ives. Thank you all for your time and hard work… This is definitely one of the proudest moments of my mayor life so far…”
Tony Harris, chair of the finance and general purposes committee, added: “This award has been made to fewer than 1% of all councils in England, and represents a sustainable and rapid improvement journey for St Ives Town Council over the last five years.
“I am immensely proud of my fellow councillors and our team of brilliant staff for making this dream a reality.”
