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Cornwall Council leader Alec Robertson writes:

"I am extremely pleased that Cornwall was shortlisted for both the "most improved council" award and the award for "community involvement" at this year's Local Government Chronicle awards. These awards are designed to highlight the very best practice in local government and being nominated is a fantastic achievement for any council. The fact that we were shortlisted for the "most improved council" award following the challenges of the transition to a unitary authority, including inheriting a number of failing services, shows the significant progress we have made over the last twelve months. This is an achievement which we should all be celebrating. Given this national recognition for the work of the Council, I am disappointed but sadly not surprised by criticism of attendance at the awards ceremony. The suggestion that this has cost a huge amount of council taxpayers' money is not true. As the Cabinet member with responsibility for performance and improvement it was right that I should represent the authority at such a prestigious event but I made it clear that it was important to keep the costs to an absolute minimum. The facts are that the Chief Executive was a judge for one of the categories and, as such, was eligible for a free place at the ceremony. He was also already in London attending meetings and so there were no additional costs for either his travel or accommodation. One of the other officers was also attending meetings outside Cornwall and so only incurred a small additional cost for travelling to London. The two people specifically representing the NewquaySafe project, one of whom was a Council officer and the other a police officer, were also already in London attending a meeting at the Home Office about the project. As a direct result of that meeting the project has been awarded a £10,000 grant to enable it to mentor other councils on its work. The other members of the group attended the ceremony as guests of outside organisations at no cost to the Council, and also paid for their own travel and accommodation. I am very proud of Cornwall's achievements which are increasingly being highlighted on the national stage and I would call on everyone to join me in celebrating Cornwall's successes."