South Gloucestershire Council

Published: 05/05/2016

Staff who provide excellent services to the people of South Gloucestershire were commended during the council’s Pride Awards yesterday (Wednesday 4 May).

The awards are designed to acknowledge the hard work of staff such as development manager Helen O’Connor who was named employee of the year. Helen has played a key role as part of the team managing planning applications, providing a high level of service for customers and our local communities. Helen has tirelessly supported her team members to drive improvements in the quality of the service they provide which in turn helps to protect the quality of development in South Gloucestershire. Her team continues to set high standards, with the speed of decision making on planning applications exceeding national standards, despite increased work volumes.

Chief Executive Amanda Deeks announced Helen as employee of the year. She said: “The calibre of nominees for employee of the year and for all of our awards was remarkably strong. Helen’s dedication to her role, her focus on excellence and her commitment to improving the service we provide to residents make her a worthy winner of the employee of the year award. She represents all of the attributes which make us proud to work for the council and provide essential services to the residents of South Gloucestershire.
“We received a large number of nominations in this year’s awards for members of Helen’s team, which reflects on an exceptional year in which they have achieved so much.”

Other winners include Adele Mildon who received a bright future award (for staff under 25). Adele’s managers praised the efficiency of her work as assistant commissioning officer, particularly noting her impressive project management skills and her persistence and perseverance in working around barriers and issues. They highlighted her excellent time management and organisational skills, her calm, reassured approach and her ability to juggle a number of complex projects whilst remaining in control and delivering work to an extremely high standard. She also has a genuine enthusiasm and commitment for her work that is clear to all who meet her.

The envirocrime team was named team of the year. The envirocrime team brings together representatives from environmental health, Street Care, waste management and legal services prosecution support. Together, they work on bringing enforcement action against individuals who commit crimes which have a detrimental impact on the environment. The team has produced an innovative, comprehensive and effective strategy for tackling envirocrime, which has resulted in a large increase in successful prosecutions against fly tippers. Last year there were 16 successful prosecutions, many of them for multiple offences.

Bryan Ford, cleaning supervisor at Warmley Park School, picked up a customer care award. The school’s staff praised Bryan for his unfailingly cheerful manner, his reliability and his willingness to always go the extra mile. As an example of his commitment to the school and his work, last year, when part of the school was flooded, Bryan gave up his own time to clear the excess water and organise the hire of dehumidifiers, which took up most of his day. The school’s caretaker was absent due to sickness, so the impact of Bryan’s actions was that pupils in the classrooms affected could get back into their rooms much earlier than would otherwise have been the case.

Print & dispatch team leader Peter Moorcraft received the lifetime achievement award. Pete has made a significant commitment to the council, successfully delivering services year after year with a career at the council which spans more than 40 years. Pete manages an in-house team that ensures the production and dispatch of printed information including letters, invoices and information leaflets etc.

Four other individuals including Trevor Thorne (Streetcare area supervisor), Helen Egarr (librarian), Janet Rogers (library assistant) and Julia Pearce (social work assistant) received long service awards for clocking up 40 years in local government.