Volunteers’ efforts will be recognised as councillors plan award events

Four council ‘wards’, or local areas, make up the North Area Council which works to improve conditions for residents and some have already operated their own annual ‘stars’ events at the Town Hall to highlight the contribution made by volunteers in the community.

Elsewhere in town, the Central Area Council run their own higher profile event for their whole district with a showcase awards ceremony at the Metrodome centre.

Councillors who make up the North Area Council have debated whether to follow that model, which costs around £6,500 to organise, or to stick with more localised events.

They would incur spending of around £1,500, meaning the difference in cost between the two options would be small.

A meeting was told that while the Central Area event can attract around 200 guests, for focused events in the North Area’s wards can each see around 80 people attending.

Councillors were told support from council officers could only be offered for one or other of the events and Coun Sharon Howard said: “We would still want to have our ‘stars’ event. It is more personal, people really enjoy the evening.

“It is in the Town Hall and people love to come into the Town Hall, it is something special for them.”

Coun Jenny Platts said the Central Area event – described as “very glitzy” – was also about learning, with different bodies attending given the opportunity to learn more about each others’ work and how they might interact better.

It was also decided to explore the prospect of a ‘workshop’ type event, specifically for organisations working in communities, to be held in addition to ward-based events, to help promote interaction.