THERE are still a few months to Christmas, but party time has come early for some of those in the world of enterprise.

For a wide range of organisations and businesses have been celebrating success with awards for their good work.

A housing development on the site of a part of York’s industrial heritage won the best design title at the national Housebuilder Awards, beating eight other finalists.

The awards, which celebrate the innovative design of housing developments across the UK, saw David Wilson Homes being praised for its pioneering development, The Chocolate Works, at the former Terry’s factory, which has been transformed into a £100 million development.

The properties were recognised for offering elegant, high-ceilinged interiors that extend over three floors, providing free-flowing spaces and secondary living areas, with patio doors leading onto private gardens and first-floor terraces.

Paul Hogan, sales director of David Wilson Homes Yorkshire East, said: “Knowing the historical significance of Terry’s Chocolate Factory to the local area, a lot of work went into the architectural design of the development.

“This award is one of many we have been accredited with for our architectural innovations across the city of York. It is our ambition to continue to drive industry-leading designs and developments in the north of England.”

Meanwhile York-based Portakabin has received a second award commendation for its delivery of a highly complex ward and theatre building at Royal Stoke University Hospital. The 4,200sqm facility was completed in less than four months to help meet an increasing demand for orthopaedic services.

Portakabin has now been highly commended at the Offsite Awards in the Public Sector Project of the Year category. The company was also highly commended for the Constructing Excellence West Midlands Project of the Year Award.

The highly serviced £13.5 million building accommodates clean-air theatres for orthopaedic procedures, a recovery room, ward bays and single ensuite rooms.

Robert Snook, director and general manager at Portakabin, said: “The success of this project allowed the trust to have its new orthopaedics unit up and running much more quickly, to meet the increasing demand for services and to enhance patients’ experience with a high quality, purpose-designed healthcare facility. It was extremely challenging in terms of scale, logistics, access, and the very close proximity of existing wards which had to remain fully operational throughout.”

The building was constructed to permanent standards and will be in use for five years. The structure was delivered as 124 modules, manufactured in York.

An express transport service linking Leeds and York has won a Gold award at the UK bus industry ‘Oscars’. Cityzap, run by Transdev from its York depot, was named as the nation’s best in the Making Buses a Better Choice category at an awards ceremony in London.

The Cityzap route was launched in March after customer research revealed the perception that even though buses linked major cities, the number of stops served on route made it difficult to compete alongside the train and the private car.

A hand-picked team of drivers use “Zap-Nav” satellite navigation equipment to choose the quickest route between the two Yorkshire cities.

Still on a transport theme, West and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce is celebrating after winning the Most Effective Campaigning award at the British Chambers of Commerce’s annual Chamber Business Awards 2016.

The local chamber was praised by the judging panel for its campaign to lobby HS2 to create a single station in Leeds to maximise the economic benefit to the region. It assembled a panel of members from across the region and launched a report calling for the existing station and HS2 services to share a common concourse.

Mark Goldstone, the chamber’s head of business representation and policy, said: “This award is testament to the commitment of those businesses across our region who gave their time freely without seeking reward in order to improve the economy for all.”