Local Council Award Scheme - Foundation Status for Westgate Town Council

WESTGATE ON SEA TOWN COUNCIL RECEIVES AWARD IN NATIONAL SCHEME

Westgate on Sea Town Council has received a prestigious award as part of the Local Council Award Scheme. This achievement recognises that the council achieves good practice in governance, community engagement and council improvement. Moreover, Westgate on Sea Town Council goes above and beyond their legal obligations, leading their communities and continuously seeking opportunities to improve and develop even further.

The Award Scheme report highlighted the council’s particular areas of strength, including its community focus and robust governance.

The Local Council Award Scheme is a peer assessed programme that has been designed to both provide the tools and encouragement to those councils at the beginning of their improvement journeys, as well as promoting and recognising councils that are at the cutting edge of the sector. It is through the sector working together to share best practice, drive up standards and supporting those who are committed to improving their offer to their communities that individual councils and the sector as a whole will reach its full potential.

Westgate on Sea Town Council’s own Chairman was quoted as being delighted and said “It is very exciting to be celebrating the achievement of reaching the Foundation Level of the national Local Council’s Award Scheme. Attaining the Foundation Award provides indisputable evidence that our seven-year-old Westgate on Sea Town Council is at the cutting edge of first tier local government and effectively serving the town and its people.

The success of our Town Clerk Gill Gray is testament to the qualities of a positive, inclusive, and progressive attitude, a willingness to go beyond, supported by a well-chosen team of officers and by councillors who are prepared to train and commit themselves to representing their community. The Foundation award is the first of three steps for a town council to demonstrate it meets the standards set by the sector and is fully committed to further improvement to reach its full potential, and at the same time contributing to a higher standard for first tier local government nationally.”

To celebrate this achievement, the council is planning to explain the award to the community at the Annual Town Meeting on 4th April 2022.

In terms of the future, the council is now reviewing ways in which it can keep on improving its offer to the local community and welcomes input from local people and partners on this. Westgate on Sea Town Council and other local councils like it, are at the front line of the government’s localism agenda and are doing as much as they can to deliver services whilst being efficient and cost-effective. Currently the council provides a range of services from managing the newly acquired Recreation Ground to facilitating community events and wants to improve its community engagement through this.