Council skates to the top for APSE Award
10/09/10
Aberdeen City Council has scooped a top national award for its role in creating a top sports facility in the city.
Transition Extreme received the Community and Neighbourhood Services Award at the UK-wide APSE awards last night [Thursday, 9 September].
The state-of-the-art extreme and urban sports centre was purpose-built as part of Aberdeen City Council's regeneration programme. Transition Extreme engaged with young people to identify what they wanted and worked with them to deliver over and above this.
Featuring an impressive indoor skate park, climbing wall, healthy eating café, band practice studios and mini cinema, the project has a fully sustainable business model, attracts more than 175,000 visitors each year and became financially stable in just three years.
Three other council initiatives were finalists in the awards. They are:
Best Environmental Initiative – Tree for Every Citizen Project
The Tree for Every Citizen Project aims to plant 210,000 trees of native species in the largely urban environment of the council's boundaries and to plant 10,000 aims in the first five months at no cost to the council. A dedicated group of officers obtained £343,500 of external funding to cover the costs of the trees and materials required.
The trees planted will contribute to creating new woodlands or extending existing ones, benefiting citizens' health and well-being, as well as providing specialised habitats for nationally important species including the red squirrel, Daubenton's bat and wych elm trees. The project will also benefit the environment by lowering carbon emissions. In all, 45 hectares of new woodland will be created which will take up and store 15,000 tonnes of CO2 over the next 50 years.
Best Employee and Equality Initiative
The council carried out a residents' survey last year as part of a move to address inequality within the organisation and across the city. It used the survey as the basis for its Diversity and Equality Policy. This umbrella policy is used to promote legislation, champion best practice, and by delivering practical support and guidance the council has been able to make significant progress in dealing with issues of inequality.
This model has been recognised as best practice by external organisations and council staff are being invited to present their experiences, lessons learned and results to other organisations both in the UK and across Europe. The approach taken the council has been commended by Ross Miklem, chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission on the depth, detail and results achieved through the consultation process and in particularly the drive to engage with ethnic minority communities.
Best Information and Communication Technology Initiative
In 2009 Aberdeen City Council's IT services were provided by approximately 100 servers, but an efficiency review estimated they were running at just 3-4% capacity. The computer suite was nearing physical capacity, lacking space for new servers to be added. Huge quantities of power being consumed were costly both financially and environmentally. A new virtual server system was installed which solved these and other problems by being more sustainable and efficient.
Using the new system means that both power and air conditioning are now running below capacity and physical space is available if needed. All goals have been achieved, with the added benefit that cost savings are being made through more efficient use of resources and improved customer service in the provision of information systems services.
Members of staff now receive a much more reliable IT service, maintenance is much less disruptive and should anything go wrong the disaster recovery is much quicker and more efficient than before.
Council leader John Stewart said: "The fact that Aberdeen City Council was a finalist in four separate categories is an achievement in its own right, proving that services that we provide are among the best in the whole of the UK. Winning the top award in one category is the icing on the cake.
"The APSE Awards showcase the pinnacle of best practice. I am proud that the city council and its staff have developed new initiatives across such a broad range of services which proved themselves against stiff competition."