National best practice champions announced

28 September 2006

The national winners of the Community Empowerment Awards, sponsored by the Commission for Rural Communities, in association with National Association of Local Councils (NALC), have been announced. At a presentation ceremony on 23 September 2006 at the NALC Annual Conference and Exhibition, Sawtry Parish Council, Dunstable Town Council, Cawthorne Parish Council and Bishop's Stortford Town Council became the first national winners in the categories of Young People, Older People, Housing and Gypsies, Travellers and migrant workers respectively.

This is the first year that the Commission for Rural Communities have run the Community Empowerment awards, and the response to the new scheme has been fantastic. The Commission wants to help establish an experience sharing network across the country, and in order to facilitate this the Community Empowerment Awards were developed.

In addition to the national award winners the judges felt that there were councils in each category whose work they particularly wanted to highlight and also added a Highly Commended Award.

Delegates at the conference had already received an insight into the best practice that happens throughout the country from the regional winners who took part in the best practice sharing session.

Alison McLean, board member of the Commission for Rural Communities commented, "These best practice champions are there for other town and parish councils to use throughout the year. It is by sharing experiences bad and good that the sector can benefit, and serve communities to the best of our abilities."

Cllr Ken Cleary, chairman of NALC said, "At this time when the profile of town and parish councils are more prevalent in the minds of central government and other key decision makers than at any other juncture in the past, these best practice champions will help to provide others with the tools to assist in the day to day workings of councils, and enable to sector to meet the challenges of empowering communities and citizens."

Each of the national winners will receive a contribution of £750, on top of the £250 they have already been awarded, to use towards a community project in their area. The highly commended councils will receive an additional £250 for a community project.

Young People

Sawtry Parish Council - Winner
Clerk/Councillors undertook training in youth issues. Inclusive consultation for young people in the parish plan. Council stuck to guns over youth shelter - not courting popularity. Resources from several local events are channelled back to young people. A young person voting representative is on Youth & Community Committee and young people attend council meetings. Council dealing with tremendous change and new issues. They viewed ASBO/Dispersal orders as spurs for action not solutions. Council is a proactive, driving force in looking for a solution that young people want.

Hutton le Hole Parish Council - Highly Commended
This is a small village but it is determined to be inclusive. They produced a separate questionnaire for young people resulting in good parish plan. They showed an innovative approach to consultation i.e. giving young people disposable cameras. The response from the parish to the consultation came very quick. Young people are an inclusive part of the community - with only 35 children in parish they could be overlooked. Council demonstrates how an inclusive and proactive approach, even in a very small parish, can come to grips with young people issues.

Older People

Dunstable Town Council - Winner
Older People's Healthy Living project so successful it has a waiting list. The scheme has breadth and scope. Council grasped the issue of Healthy Living & provides a wide range of initiatives and services. Gives very vulnerable older people a voice and they attend the project steering committee meetings. Council has put considerable effort into engaging with, and providing for, this targeted, very marginalised group. Good partnership working.

Leigh on Sea Town Council - Highly Commended
The council have a project which is aimed at providing a night out rather than traditional community transport. Also extended to those with disability. Project beyond traditional thinking and evolved from consultation with older people. Council proactively involved buying tickets for events. The project is still evolving, and membership continues to grow at 10% a year.

Housing

Cawthorne Parish Council - Winner
The Council did not give up - they were persistent. The Council were driving the process to bring affordable housing to the area. Good example of how a parish council can be involved e.g. Village Design Statement. Parish council made it happen. Had to fight borough council quite hard to get rural recognised.

High Bickington Parish Council - Highly Commended
The Parish Council is very involved in a regeneration scheme for whole community with housing at the centre. They are looking at the needs of 30 individuals and families as part of a broad scheme for a growing village. The proposed scheme was turned down but they are trying another approach. It is ambitious for a small community to set up Community Property Trust - definitely not a moribund small rural council.

Gypsies, Travellers and migrant workers

Bishop's Stortford Town Council - Winner
This application met all the criteria. The Town Council are planning ahead to build on the past success The Town Council recognise that this is an issue that affects all migrant workers and not just one group, as well as recognising the type of work has spread from agriculture to many different areas - including health care. Ensured services are developed that are accessible to the migrant worker community. In addition, other Parish Councils will benefit from the experiences that have been carried out in this very difficult area.

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Notes to Editors

1. The National Association of Local Councils is the national representative body for 10,000 community, parish and town councils throughout England and Wales. In all, there are over 100,000 community, parish and town councillors throughout England and Wales. These councillors, who serve electorates ranging from small rural communities to major cities, are all independently elected. The councils have powers to raise their own funds through council tax. Community, parish and town councils provide employment for over 25,000 staff while their annual expenditure exceeds £400 million. Together, they can be identified as the nation's single most influential grouping of grassroots opinion-formers. Over 15 million people live in communities served by 10,000 community, parish and town councils nationally - this represents up to 30% of the population. Over 150 new community, parish and town councils have been created since 1997.

2. The Community Empowerment Awards sponsored by the Commission for Rural Communities are designed to recognise, reward and share the experiences of best practice as performed by parish and town councils in England. The essential criteria for success in the awards are where parish and town councils show in their projects: engagement and participation, understanding and building community relations, sustainability, facilitation, identification of issues and needs, and action.

3. The Commission for Rural Communities as an independent statutory body operating as a distinct division of the Countryside Agency, across three main roles:

Rural advocate: the voice for rural people, businesses and communities.

Expert adviser: providing evidence-based, independent advice to government and others.

Independent watchdog: monitoring and reporting on the delivery of policies nationally, regionally and locally.

See also the website: www.ruralcommunities.gov.uk

For more information contact Alan Jones on 020 7290 0316/ alan.jones@nalc.gov.uk