Teamwork pays off for council's unsung heroes

A dedicated team of builders who sort out tenants’ repairs and look after council property has scooped the top award in Wigan Council's 'team of the year' awards.

Leigh Building Services (LBS) were chosen from fifteen finalists and received their award on Friday (20 April) from former British tennis champion Andrew Castle at an Oscar-style ceremony at Wigan's Investment Centre.

Today council bosses described them as unsung heroes who go out of their way to provide a caring but efficient service for more than 12,000 tenants in the eastern side of the borough.

The 90 strong team includes joiners, builders, electricians and roofers and as well as looking after council homes they carry out maintenance and repairs to public buildings and schools.

Chief executive Joyce Redfearn told the team their approach had won praise from customers and led to a high level of satisfaction with council house repairs.

But it’s not just their customer service skills that have paid off. Last year LBS made a profit of £333,000, much of which was reinvested in the council housing stock, and the team has met all its targets for quality of repairs, levels of sickness and speed of responding to emergencies.

The LBS team was top in the individual category of Providing Value for Money and then also won the overall award.

Terry Dunn, head of operations for the environmental services department, said:

“The team at Leigh Building Services have shown commitment and desire over the past two years to deliver an outstanding service. The results have been clear to see.

“New tenants are now housed much earlier than previously experienced, repairs are done with speed and quality that will match any other provider in the country and customer satisfaction is near to 100%. It’s amazing how the delivery of this service can have such a positive impact on the quality of live for the residents of Wigan.

“I am proud to be associated with such a dedicated team of people who are in turn proud of their achievements.”

Wigan Council launched the awards to recognise and celebrate the way local authority staff have worked together to provide quality services for the residents of the borough.

Joyce Redfearn added:

“The awards highlight the dedication and hard work, often above and beyond the call of duty, being done by hundreds of staff across the authority. While we had a winner on the night, in a sense every team nominated is a winner.

"The judges were very impressed at the level of commitment shown by authority staff across the board."

Fifteen teams made it through to the finals, out of more than fifty originally nominated. The overall winners received an engraved shield and individual shopping vouchers for team members.