FENLAND District Council walked away with a hat trick of trophies at a prestigious national awards ceremony in London last week.

It beat off stiff competition from across the country to win best achievement awards for housing and regeneration, reducing health inequalities and people and workforce development. It narrowly missed out on being named Council of the Year.

The MJ Awards are the biggest and most competitive awards scheme for local government. The triple success made it fourth time lucky for the council, after being repeatedly pipped at the post over the past three years.

Sandra Claxton, the council’s new chief executive, said: “This is a fantastic result. It’s a tribute to the ‘one team’ approach between officers and members and the hard work and commitment of all our staff and it underlines both the improvements we’ve made over the past few years and the quality of the services we provide.”

Council Leader Alan Melton said: “I’m absolutely delighted. It’s a great achievement and a richly deserved reward for the great efforts put in by all our officers.”

His predecessor as Leader for the past five years, Councillor Geoff Harper, added: “This is the icing on the cake following our accolade of “Excellence” from the Audit Commission and the many other awards that have helped us attract millions of pounds in grants.”