RYEDALE District Council has been recognised for “transforming the way it works” at a recent national award ceremony.

Out of more than 150 entries, the authority won gold in the Transforming through People category and bronze in the Council of the Year category.

The awards were run by iESE, who were brought in as consultants by RDC last year to deliver their cost-cutting transformation programme.

Cllr Linda Cowling, council leader, said: “Having delivered big savings already, we had to take a radical approach to changing how we operated in order to push through further significant savings.

“We’ve done just that, and now our work to deliver value for money has been recognised nationally.

“I’d like to thank all our staff for their commitment and support during the past 12 months. Together, we’ve been able to deliver changes that put us in a strong position for the future.”

Dr Andrew Larner, chief executive of iESE, added: “The quality of entrants this year has been as high as ever, and those councils and emergency services who’ve been shortlisted are doing some really inspiring work to make sure public services are viable into the future.

“Local services have to change – we all know that. But saying it is one thing – developing innovative new ways to actually deliver it is an enormous challenge, and these councils and emergency services can be proud of leading the way.”