National Award Recognition for Torridge (2012)

The council has won a Land Data award every year for the past four years and is the only local authority in the country to have achieved this. In 2008 and 2009 the council won the customer satisfaction award, in 2010 Kevin Crowl was named Local Land Charges Officer of the Year and last year the local land charges team were presented with an award for marketing innovation.

The national awards celebrate the work and achievements of local authority local land charges departments, which carry out land and property searches required for property transactions throughout England and Wales.

The winners of the awards were announced on 20^th February at an awards dinner held in Bristol presented by BBC journalist and Radio 4 'Today' presenter, Justin Webb.  The winners were honoured across six categories covering electronic service delivery, customer satisfaction, most improved service, best NLIS level 3 local land charges department, best NLIS level 2 local land charges department and the local land charges officer of the year.   Over 110 representatives from local land charges teams from around the country attended the awards dinner.

Councillor Barry Parsons, Leader of Torridge District Council said: "This is, once again, another fine achievement by our officers at Torridge District Council. As a relatively small local authority we punch far above our weight. I continue to be proud of our officers and members who are providing, without a shadow of doubt, more for less."

Nominees for this award are made by local authority search customers, solicitors and licensed conveyancers, who vote for the local authority that they feel provides excellent customer service in terms of quality, reliability and value for money.

Jan Boothroyd, Chief Executive of Land Data commented: "This year's awards once again single out those local land charges teams that shine and continue to maintain a high level of service in challenging economic times, congratulations to all winners and highly commended local authorities."

The Local Land Charges Awards for Excellence were sponsored by the Local Land Charges Institute (LLCI), Thames Water Property Searches, SearchFlow and NLIS.