November 16, 2011
The council became the only local authority in the country to be shortlisted for the Public Sector Project of the Year category of the awards, held in London on Thursday (November 10).
The nomination followed the council’s ground-breaking Agile Working Project to help cut costs and increase productivity by moving to state-of-the-art offices.
Despite battling it out with much larger organisations including the Department of Health and the Post Office, the council was named as one of only two medallists in its category.
David Clarke, MBE, Chief Executive Officer of British Computer Society (BCS), The Chartered Institute for IT, said:
“On behalf of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, I’d like to congratulate all our winners, medallists and finalists. The awards are very rigorously judged so to be a winner or medallist means that you really are the best of the best.”
The council’s Agile Working Project, delivered on time and within budget, has seen staff relocate from the council’s former offices in 68 Grove Road to newly refurbished and highly efficient work stations at 1 Grove Road. The project had a total budget of £2.6m and will save £3m over 10 years on top of paying back the £2.6m budget.
Modern working practices including hot desking and paperless filing have been incorporated in bright and engaging workplace areas, while the building’s carbon footprint has been dramatically reduced through new windows with solar shading.
Leader of the council, Cllr David Tutt, said:
"Agile working has proved a tremendous success in Eastbourne and now the project has also gained national recognition. We are very proud to have received this award from the BCS as a testament to the hard work of our staff in delivering this change which has helped us to maintain services to the people of Eastbourne at a time of major cuts in government grants."
