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Beacon Status for Olympic legacy

 
Greenwich’s pioneering work to secure long-term benefits from the 2012 Games has helped us to achieve Beacon status in the Government’s prestigious best-practice scheme for local councils.

In the first-ever national Beacon award for Olympic and Paralympic legacy, Greenwich was one of just five councils in England to receive the award.

To order to win, successful authorities were required to demonstrate that they are:

  • increasing participation in sports, volunteering and cultural activity
  • regenerating communities, and improving local skills and business capacity ahead of 2012
  • planning to continue this work afterwards.

Sharing good practice

The Beacon awards recognise local government’s excellence and innovation in improving quality of life for residents and communities. The scheme is funded by the Government to help councils that are demonstrating good practice to expand that work and help other councils achieve the same success.

The panel who assessed Greenwich’s bid commented that: "The council demonstrates clear vision and commitment, coupled with good implementation strategies and approach to community involvement."

Greenwich and the other Beacon councils for this theme will now work together, with the support of the Improvement and Development Agency, using a range of learning activities to help improve standards in all authorities in this area.

Top performers

Sadiq Khan, Communities Minister, who hosted the awards ceremony, said: "My congratulations go out to Greenwich Council. The Beacons are about showcasing the very best in service delivery, and in this, their final year, we really have seen some exceptional examples of work to create a legacy from the Olympic Games and Paralympics Games.

"Greenwich is among the top performers in this field, setting the standard for innovation, service excellence and improvement. With the added emphasis on economic recovery in this year’s Beacons, the winners are ideally placed to share their knowledge and skills to improve the sector as a whole."

Beacon award scheme

Slides from Beacon Open Day presentations

Further to achieving Beacon status, the Council hosted an Open Day in November 2009 to share its learning with other local authorities around the country. The event, at The O2, attracted representatives from over fifty organisations.

Presentation slides, in PDF format, are available:

To view these documents, you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader.

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