FOREST Heath District Council is celebrating success in three prestigious awards.
In the Best Performing Authority category of the National Land and Property Gazeteer awards the district council's IT team was Highly Commended for its work on a specialised mapping and plotting system.
Councillor Tony Wheble, Member Champion for Local Government Transformation, said: "This is fantastic news for the council. We are very proud of our IT staff and the tremendous effort and commitment they have to delivering high quality services for Forest Heath. I am delighted that their achievements have now been recognised nationally! "
Newmarket Tourism Information Centre has also received a Highly Commended award at this year's Regional Enjoy England Tourism Awards for Excellence Ceremony (Best Tourist Information Centre).
The award was presented to Forest Heath council's Simon Batey and Becky Jackson who heard the judges praise the excellent work of the staff.
Councillor Robin Millar, Member Champion for Economy, said: "I would like to thank all tourist information centre staff, but particularly Newmarket, for their outstanding contribution to service delivery. The wealth of information and helpful advice available at the TIC in Palace House makes it an essential stop for anyone visiting Newmarket."
An innovative Suffolk-wide partnership involving council's in-house legal teams won the Shared Services award at the 2007 Public Servants of the Year Awards ceremony for its Doing Business Better project.
The judges praised the work of the project in improving services to clients and the community. The partnership is thought to be the only one of its kind in the UK where county, borough and district level authorities have developed a shared legal service. Each council maintains its own legal experts, but joint procurement of training, resource materials and equipment bring major benefits across the board. This saves money by providing an alternative to using private sector firms and makes best use of in-house legal expertise.