Award boost for town's leisure and cultural services
September 2, 2008 3:15 PM
A Venetian festival, high quality leisure facilities and health and nutritional programmes have won Northampton a place in the national award finals for public service excellence.
2008 has been a bumper year for sports, leisure and culture in Northampton with the borough council organising a wide range of events and activities for everyone to enjoy. In recognition of this Northampton Borough Council's culture and leisure services teams have been short-listed for an Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) award for providing culture and leisure opportunities and activities for the whole town to enjoy.
The teams have been responsible for a number of different projects praised by the selection panel including:
Achieving QUEST status for the borough council's leisure centres, which is the 'kite mark' used by the leisure industry to show a commitment to quality in facilities and staff. Each of the three leisure centres also improved their Charter Mark.
Improving the QUEST status of the council's sports development team. Throughout the year the team promotes fitness and healthy living by organising events and activities for all ages.
Throughout the year the team also continued to deliver two nationally recognised schemes. BODY4LIFE, which is a fitness and nutrition programme for overweight and obese children, and the Street Football Project which teaches football, team building and social skills to over 300 children across seven areas of the town. Both schemes have been able to change the lives of young people, with parents and teachers reporting positive changes in behaviour and attitude.
The Northampton Museum and Art Gallery has put on a large number of exhibitions and has become an important member of the Renaissance East Midlands project.
This year the museum organised the hugely successful Venezia Festival, a three-month festival featuring Venetian inspired art exhibitions, opera, theatre, music, films, talks, workshops, a masked ball, an Italian market and many more events.
Cllr. Brendan Glynane
Councillor Brendan Glynane, Northampton Borough Council Liberal Democrat cabinet member for leisure said: "Over the last year the leisure and culture team has done a fantastic job, providing events and services that benefit the people of Northampton. Venezia! really put the town on the cultural map with visitors coming from far and wide to see what Northampton has to offer. Visitors to our museums and leisure centres will also have seen improvements in the service they receive.
"Being short-listed for this award is a huge achievement and everyone involved should feel very proud that their hard work and dedication is being recognised."
The final decision will be announced at the Association of Public Service Excellence's awards ceremony on Thursday 11 September.
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