Peterborough City Council scoops '˜local government Oscars' for efficiency and innovation

Award winner Lisa Roberts with Sir Trevor McDonald and award judge Steve Atkinson, Former Chief Executive of Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council

The authority picked up the top prize in the Efficiency, Environment and Innovation categories and council officer Lisa Roberts received the Rising Star award.

No other authority picked up more prizes at the Local Government Chronicle Awards.

Councillor John Holdich, leader of Peterborough City Council, said: “These awards are the Oscars of local government and to win four categories is a fantastic achievement. In this era of ever-decreasing government funding local authorities must be both efficient and innovative and therefore it’s important to be recognised in both of these categories.

“I would like to thank our officers for their continued hard work and congratulate them on their achievements.”

The council won the Efficiency award for the changes made to library services in the city. By using self-service technology all council libraries have remained open and had their opening hours extended.

Lisa Roberts, the council’s head of culture and leisure, received the Rising Star award for her work to implement the new technology in all city libraries. Lisa has been working with dozens of UK councils to roll-out the same self-service scheme in other areas of the country.

The council’s energy strategy won in the Environment category. The judges praised council initiatives to generate renewable energy alongside projects such as the Peterborough Energy tariff and a scheme run in partnership with Honeywell to reduce the council’s overall energy consumption.

With over 6,000 households switching to Peterborough Energy in less than two years the judges said the tariff had done much to address ‘fuel poverty in the city’.

The Innovation award was received for the Empower Peterborough project which offers residents free solar panels on their homes.

Council projects were nominated for a further five awards including the Energy Recovery Facility, run in partnership with Viridor, and further nominations for the council’s energy strategy and self-service library technology.

A data product developed by the council called Asteria was also nominated in the Most Innovative Service Delivery Model and Innovation categories.