Aylesbury: Council among most entrepreneurial in country

Aylesbury Vale District Council (AVDC) has been nominated for three awards in recognition of its commercial approach to council services. The council has been shortlisted for two categories at the LGC Awards: Entrepreneurial Council of the Year for its innovative method of generating revenue to subsidise budget cuts and Driving Efficiency through Technology for leading the way with its cost-saving car pool scheme.

AVDC is also in the same category at the UK Cloud Awards as IT giant Microsoft and the Ministry of Defence, competing for the Best Public Sector Project award for its digital transformation project, Right Here, Right Now, which is estimated to save the council £1.8 million over the next five years.

The LGC Awards take place on Wednesday March 8 and recognise the very best in local government. The shortlisting for Entrepreneurial Council of the Year reflects how the council has re-shaped its approach to become a commercially minded organisation. Through the creation of two distinct companies, Vale Commerce and Aylesbury Vale Broadband, AVDC is looking to provide commercial, paid-for, services in order to generate an income for the more traditional non-paid-for council services, such as waste collection and community spaces.

The Driving Efficiency through Technology award nomination recognises the introduction of AVDC’s car pool scheme, which has saved £104,000 in its first year. In addition to cost savings, the scheme has cut vehicle emissions by half and has achieved National Best Practice recognition through the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA), the trade body for the vehicle rental and leasing sector.

The 2017 UK Cloud Awards take place on Wednesday March 15.

Janet Blake, Cabinet member for business transformation, said: “It really is fantastic news that our commercial projects have been recognised through the award nominations by both the LGC and the UK Cloud Awards. It has become imperative that we find different ways of earning new income and to become more efficient in all we do, in order to grow our services. We work incredibly hard at AVDC to think outside of the box on how we can make improvements commercially while ensuring that all projects are developed with our residents firmly in mind.”