Mansfield District Council (MDC) is celebrating another great year for awards, with staff and service areas across the board receiving recognition from a range of award bodies.

MDC Specialist Parenting Practitioner Anne Callaghan (Community Safety team) was awarded the British Empire Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for her outstanding contribution to children and families. Anne runs a number of parenting programmes aimed at parents and carers of children aged from 18 months to 14 years.

She also received a Management Journal commendation (MJ Awards) together with MDC Domestic Violence Prevention Officer Sarah Guy for their work on a programme which supports victims of domestic violence and abuse.

The Parks team also enjoyed a year of success, after five of the district’s parks picked up a prestigious Green Flag award, which recognises the best green spaces in the country. The district also won a silver gilt medal in the East Midlands in Bloom Awards, topping the City category for a second time.

Mansfield’s Crematorium and its four cemeteries in the district achieved gold awards for their responsive and caring approach to helping the bereaved. The accreditations were awarded under the Charter for the Bereaved, a scheme run by the Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management.

The charter aims to improve levels of service and raise awareness of issues surrounding bereavement and rights of the bereaved, helping them to influence funeral arrangements and thereby control the costs.

A total of 117 teams across the UK were considered for the accreditation and Mansfield’s cemeteries in Mansfield, Mansfield Woodhouse, Warsop and Pleasley Hill, which are run by Mansfield District Council, were among 37 teams to achieve the gold award.

The theme of gold continued with the council winning the Best Address Data in the East Midlands at the national GeoPlace Exemplar awards, which recognise excellence in the way that street and address information is delivered across local government. The council also received a Gold Achievement Award for its work on the Local Land and Property Gazetteer.

The council’s Dog Control Service received a prestigious Gold Community Animal Welfare Footprint Award from the RSPCA in recognition of its high quality work in handling stray dogs and ensuring that they are treated humanely and safely while under the care of the authority.

There was an awards hat-trick for MDC’s Swim Coach and Development Officer Glenn Smith, who in 2015 picked up the prestigious Para-Coach of the Year Award from the British Swimming Coaches Association, as well as the Para Swimming Coach of the Year Award at the British Swimming Awards. He was also named Coach of the Year at the Nottingham Sports Awards in October.

Mansfield Museum was highly commended in the Innovation Awards category at the East Midlands Heritage Awards for its flash mob event in the Town Centre, which launched the opening of the new Made in Mansfield gallery. The flash mob brought together around 150 people in the Town Centre, who sang, danced and carried placards.

Finally, the year finished on another high note at the Nottingham Post Environment Awards, when the council’s International Clean Up Mansfield Day was awarded Public Sector Environmental Initiative of the Year.

Executive Mayor of Mansfield District Council, Kate Allsop said: “These awards highlight the quality of services delivered by our staff and their commitment to driving up standards to enhance the lives of the people of the district. We are extremely proud of everything we have achieved throughout 2015 and look forward to repeating our success in 2016.”