HARROW Council has been highly commended at the local government equivalent of the Oscars.
The Tory-run authority was in contention for the Most Improved Council of the Year at the Local Government Chronicle (LGC) Awards, the ceremony for which was held yesterday evening in central London.
It lost out to Yorkshire's Hull City Council but was the only other finalist to be 'highly commended'.
Harrow Council chief executive Michael Lockwood told colleagues: "Whilst we didn't come away with a win, our being shortlisted is a huge achievement and shows the massive steps forward we have made over the last few years.
"We were up against some extremely stiff competition from other councils, and we should all be extremely proud of this result.
"We are also the only council to be shortlisted for both LGC's Most Improved Council and the Municipal Journal's Best Achieving Council.
"You may remember that the council was shortlisted for Most Improved Council in December, and received a visit from a group of LGC judges earlier this year.
"You helped us put on a fantastic programme to showcase to the judges just how far we've come, and how proud we all are of what we do and what we've achieved, and they left in no doubt of the scale of our achievements."
