Horsforth Town Council receives Silver Award under Local Council Award Scheme

Published: 14 April 2025

We are delighted to announce that Horsforth Town Council has been awarded the Silver Award under the Local Council Award Scheme, administered by the National Association of Local Councils (NALC).

This achievement follows our attainment of the Bronze Award in February 2024, marking significant progress in our ongoing commitment to excellence.

The Silver Award recognises that the Town Council excels in strong governance, active community engagement, and a clear commitment to continuous improvement—demonstrating a standard that goes above and beyond statutory obligations.

To achieve this award, the Town Council not only maintained all the standards required for the Bronze level, but also provided additional evidence demonstrating:

• how the Council represents and engages with the community,
• effective and transparent governance in the management of Council business and finances, and
• a commitment to continuous improvement through the development and support of staff and councillors.

The Local Council Award Scheme is a peer assessed programme that has been designed to both provide the tools and encouragement to those councils at the beginning of their improvement journeys, as well as promoting and recognising councils that are at the cutting edge of the sector. It is through the sector working together to share best practice, drive up standards and supporting those who are committed to improving their offer to their communities that individual councils and the sector as a whole will reach its full potential.

On achievement of the Silver Award Chair Cllr Simon Dowling says

"This recognition highlights Horsforth Town Council’s ongoing commitment to progress, innovation, and dedicated service to the community and is reward for all the hard work all councillors put in as volunteers, I want to pay special tribute to the staff who support the Town Council the Clerk Becky Crabtree and Admin Assistant Steph White who do so much behind the scenes to support the Town Council in being able to be so active in the community."

Details of what the award means, the different levels and what happens after being accredited can be found on NALC’s website.