Mid and East Antrim honoured with silver award for UK Council of the Year

Mid and East Antrim Borough Council has been recognised as one of the very best in the UK at a prestigious awards ceremony.

The council received silver in the UK Council of the Year category at the iESE Awards, which celebrate and share the most innovative practice in transforming local public services.

The award is presented to councils that are deemed outstanding in terms of transforming their services and creating opportunities.

Mid and East Antrim was also the bronze winner of the Community Focus Award for its Community Hub.

This award is for the initiative that does most to reinvigorate the local community.

The awards were collected on behalf of Council by Mid and East Antrim's iESE representative Alderman Audrey Wales MBE and Chief Executive Anne Donaghy OBE.

Alderman Wales said: "This award is much-deserved recognition of the incredible efforts and delivery of Mid and East Antrim Borough Council.

"Under the leadership of Chief Executive Anne Donaghy, our council is without question the best-performing in Northern Ireland, and one of the very best in the entire UK.

"We continue to set the bar when it comes to transformation, as recognised by the iESE judges, and delivering first-class frontline services for all our citizens.

"Despite the challenges of Covid, we delivered on vital Capital Plan projects and continued to lead the way with our ambitious City Deal projects, our vision to see Mid and East Antrim become a UK hydrogen hub and other game-changing opportunities for our Borough."

Mayor William McCaughey commended Council on its success.

“These awards are further recognition of the incredible work of our staff day in, day out," he said.

"I commend our Chief Executive Anne Donaghy and thank her and all our staff for their commitment to delivering an excellent service for our ratepayers.

"At the outbreak of Covid, our council devised and delivered innovative interventions and initiatives to support our community during what continues to be an unprecedented crisis.

“The Community Hub was critical to that, assisting with the delivery of vital food and medical supplies to the vulnerable, as well as Council's delivery of vital support grants to those most in need. Focused taskforces were also set up which have provided a lifeline to many businesses within our Borough. The UK Council of the Year silver award is recognition of all these efforts and more."

Created by local authorities as a shared resource to transform public services and retain experience within the sector, iESE has a successful track record of delivering transformation and service improvement programmes across the UK and has delivered real savings of over £1billion for its members and clients to help them meet the challenges they face.