Harrogate Borough Council
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Employee of the Year 2007
14 JUNE 2007 Jo Kilburn, Housing Policy Strategy
Officer, was last night chosen as Harrogate Borough Council's
Employee of the Year 2007. Jo was nominated for
her tireless efforts to deliver an innovative but complex housing
scheme to provide housing, education and job opportunities for
disadvantaged and vulnerable young people.
Without her the scheme would have folded but is now set to be one
of just a handful of successful Youthbuild projects.
Jo's colleagues in the Housing Management Team -
Alison Lloyd, Stephen Wilson, Reno Cooper, Laura Marsden,
Sarah Richardson, Marina Ingrassia-Tubbs, Julie Samadian, Ruth
Bain, Jo Hunt, Pam Willett and Phil Hunt
were awarded the title of Team of the Year for their continued
high performance which has resulted in the lowest level of rent
arrears in over twenty years and their collection rate for council
rent is one of the highest in the country at 99.69%.
The Innovation Award for original work, which has led to real
improvement for customers and or staff, went to the Information
Technology Development Team John Birkinshaw, Jonathan Swaddle,
Michael Wood, Richard Johns and Drew Salem.
These staff members have developed the My Property page for the
council's website which is proving very popular with
residents.
The final award for Customer Focus went to Belinda Pittam,
Licensing Officer who was nominated for the time and patience she
affords to busy licence applicants. Belinda
turns them around in the shortest possible time so that taxi
drivers are not off the road for too long and losing
business.
The Mayor of the Borough of Harrogate, Councillor Cliff
Trotter, presented the awards and the evening was compered by
Councillor Andrew Jones, Cabinet Member for Resources and Chair of
the Human Resources Committee. He
said: "Like any organisation, big or small, we
are only as good as the staff we employ. We
launched these awards last year to recognise our staff's commitment
and continued high performance." ENDS