The SouthGlos Post

South Gloucestershire Council’s development control, building control, and planning enforcement teams, grouped as development services, have been awarded the Government’s Customer Service Excellence (CSE) standard for their commitment to delivering their services with their customers clearly in mind.

The CSE is a national standard which recognises organisations that are firmly focused on customer satisfaction and that go the extra mile to deliver it.

The three teams provide services directly to the residents and business of South Gloucestershire and are responsible for the control of development, through the assessment of planning applications, the enforcement of breaches of planning control and safeguarding the health and safety of people in and around new buildings through effective building control.

The council submitted its application for the CSE standard earlier this year and an independent on-site assessment of services was carried out in June. The assessors found that development services had achieved an ‘exemplary standard of customer service delivery’ and that there was ’strong leadership provided by the service and the engagement of the staff in the customer focus of the service’.

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Source: South Gloucestershire Council

South Gloucestershire Council has begun publishing details of all items of spending above £500 as part of radical moves in local government transparency.

The council is committed to being as transparent as possible in how it is spending tax payers’ money and, in line with government direction, has made this important first step towards getting day-to-day council business out in the open.

Council leader John Calway, said: “The public has the right to see this information and I am pleased that South Gloucestershire is one of the first councils in the country to open our accounts to scrutiny.

“We are a low spending, high performing council which has been recognised for our excellent use of resources, however, we are always looking for ways to provide even better value for money. Now, more than ever, it is essential that councils spend wisely. “

The council has today (9th August) put spending above £500, for the period April to June 2010, online and will continue to update its website every financial quarter.

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Source: South Gloucestershire Council

A new school in South Gloucestershire, designed from start to finish by an architect from South Gloucestershire Council, has won a prestigious accolade.

The Local Authority Building Control (LABC) West of England Building Excellence Awards were held last week at Bristol’s Royal Marriott Hotel.

Acton Turville School won Best Sustainable Development for its innovative design and wealth of energy saving features.

The council’s architect, Nicole Muller, took on the brief to design the school and incorporated features such as a biomass boiler, a rainwater harvesting system and a living, sedum roof that slows down rainwater runoff and encourages biodiversity. She was supported by other members of the council’s property services team who provided technical backup.

The striking curved design of the building was complimented by the LABC judges who said:

“This is a well-designed building that satisfies the requirements of 21st century schooling, exceeds current energy saving requirements and provides a valuable multi-use facility for the village community.”

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Source: South Gloucestershire Council

The Leaders of the four local authorities in the West of England have unanimously agreed to take the lead in driving economic growth and securing the local economic recovery.

Bath & North East Somerset, Bristol City, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire have written to the Secretaries of State for Local Government Eric Pickles, and Business, Vince Cable, to express their ‘in principle’ commitment to taking on new responsibilities, potentially in the form of one of the first ‘Local Enterprise Partnerships’ in the country.

This follows the coalition Government’s announcement about Regional Development Agencies, which they said should only remain where they are supported locally.

The letter, signed by the four Council Leaders and Stephen Harrison as Chair of the Skills & Competitiveness Board, stated:

“The West of England is the most economically competitive sub-region outside London and is a well-established partnership of four unitary councils, three Conservative and one Liberal Democrat, and their strategic partners. We believe we can make a significant contribution to the recovery through economic growth.”

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Source: South Gloucestershire Council

All eyes were on South Gloucestershire during election night on May 6 and the council certainly didn’t fail to deliver!

In fact, the three counts at Kingswood, Filton and Bradley Stoke and Thornbury and Yate, ran so smoothly, leader of South Gloucestershire Council, Cllr John Calway has praised all the staff and volunteers involved.

Cllr Calway said: “I was delighted to see South Gloucestershire declare all three counts in the district just over three hours after the polling stations closed, which was down to the tremendous hard work and professionalism of the staff and volunteers involved. Their efforts ensured we were one of the quickest in the country.”

Kingswood was identified from the outset as a ‘seat to watch’, with a swing indicative of the national picture. A long night was predicted, however, not only was a result declared shortly before 1am, but the hordes of local, regional and national media were there to witness the first seat in the country swing from Labour to Conservative.

While stories were flooding in of residents left stranded outside polling stations, counts stretching to 4am and possible recounts, all of the counts in South Gloucestershire were declared by 1.15am – a fantastic achievement to announce all the results just over three hours after the polling stations had closed.

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Source: South Gloucestershire Council