Excellence in Local Government Awards 2005

16/11/2005

Archived item. This item is published here for historical reasons. The information below may be out of date.

SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL IS A WINNER OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF EXCELLENCE IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT AWARDS 2005

At a ceremony at Clontarf Castle last night South Dublin County Council was presented with two awards for excellence in local government by the Chamber of Commerce of Ireland. The Winning Projects were entitled ‘ Grange Castle Business Park ’ which won the Economic Development category and ‘Spatial Information Delivery’ which was the winner of the Technology category.

SDCC received also two citations as runners up in ‘Local Authority of the Year’ and ‘Outstanding Customer Care’.

Mayor Therese Ridge and County Manager Joe Horan received the awards on behalf of the Council.  Mayor Ridge spoke of her pride in the organization and its achievement particularly in the development of the world class business park at Grange Castle and the impact it has made in terms of employment creation across the whole County.

Minister Dick Roche opened the ceremony and congratulated the local authorities who had participated ‘Local Government is the Cinderella of Irish public administration, the range and quality of its service impact on the lives of every individual and business in the country.  It has changed significantly over the last decade but it has never received the recognition to which it is entitled.

He warmly welcomed the initiative by the Chambers of Commerce to acknowledge and encourage best practice and constructive new ideas.

The detail of the award are as follows;

SDCC -Winner in category Economic Development – ‘ Developing an existing land bank in Council ownership into a world class business park “Grange Castle” to assist in the creation of employment”.

Winner in category Technology –‘The spatial information delivery project maximising the potential and value from the Councils spatial information to deliver constant relevant information to community and business”.

SDCC – commended for category Local Authority of the Year – “Implementing a strategic plan to increase productivity and reduce costs through change management and embracing new initiatives and new technologies to ensure staff and financial resources are focused towards critical issues”.

SDCC - commended for category Outstanding Customer Service – “Outstanding customer service in implementing a strategy to improve customer service including improving customers access to information required and recording all queries through a customer care monitoring system”