The waste and recycling team at East Riding of Yorkshire Council has won a top national award at a prestigious ceremony honouring the best in local government.
The team was presented with the award for Best Council Services Team at the MJ Local Government Achievement Awards 2019.
The annual awards recognise the very highest standards of services and staff at local authorities across the UK and were hosted this year by BBC Breakfast presenter Steph McGovern.
The East Riding team was up against different services from seven other local authorities for the award: Birmingham City Council, Liverpool City Council, London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, Isle of Wight Council, Kettering Council, Pembrokeshire Council and Sandwell Council.
It was third time lucky for the waste and recycling team, as they had reached the finals for the same award in 2017 and 2018.
In winning the award, the team was recognised for achieving the highest recycling rate of any council in the country for two years running.
Thanks to the support of East Riding residents, the council was able to recycle, reuse or compost 64.5% of all household waste in 2017/18. The national average was 44.8%.
The team also ran successful campaigns which increased the recycling of metal packaging in residents’ blue bins by 15 tonnes – and led to a 15% rise in the amount of small electrical items being taken to household waste recycling sites.
The council’s bin collection crews were also singled out for making a difference in the community and for their excellent service, including managing to empty all bins in extreme weather conditions during last year’s ‘Beast from the East’ and the summer heatwave.
The judges said: “This authority’s waste service has demonstrated excellence consistently over the years after a remarkable turnaround and is now ranked number one in the country for recycling.
“It shows continuous improvement and has been consistent in the pursuit of its goals.”
Councillor Richard Burton, leader of East Riding of Yorkshire Council, said: “The MJ Achievement Awards are very prestigious in the world of local government and it’s a great honour for our waste and recycling team to receive this.
“It’s very well deserved for all the hard work the staff have put in over the years to make the East Riding the country’s top recycler.
“Residents in the East Riding have contributed a great deal to the recycling success and I would like to thank them for their continued support.”
This seems to me a total waste of council tax payers money swanning down to London or where-ever and meeting a member of the BBC which like East Riding is under enormous scrutiny for the money it pays top presenters whilst at the same time under compulsion from a Tory government forced to scrap free tv licences for the over 75s.
I have queried this and several other items you have featured recently with the Chief Executive of East Riding because although the release praises the dustmen there are none of them in the photo and those working on the bins who have seen this photo have said “bloody typical dicky bow tied bosses taking all the credit and spending money on junkets should be spent on paying us a bonus if they think that much of our efforts.