the 2017 winners
Bolton's Best 2017 winners
Published: Monday, 12th Nov 2018

Bolton residents have the chance to thank staff who go the extra mile by voting in this year’s council awards.

Bolton’s Best Staff Awards recognise the achievements of council workers and the judges need your help to pick the winner in the Best Customer Care category.

Three nominees are in the running spanning a diverse range of council services.

Among them is the Drainage Team which provides 24-hour coverage for the 22,000 residents of Bolton at Home.

Dealing with 1,000 incident a year, the team delivers a vital service dealing with flooding, sewer cleaning, drain repairs and more.

They respond to 99.9% of calls within two hours and customer feedback routinely rates the service as “good” or “very good”.

Shakeel Ahmed is a development worker in the council’s Money Skills team where he helps residents struggling with fuel poverty.

Dispensing practical money saving tips, Shakeel also helps customers apply for discounts, switch energy suppliers and secure new boilers.

Since 2015 he has helped move than 300 people to save an average of over £160 each.

One service user remarked: “I really appreciated the patience, time, and knowledge Shakeel gave to me. His customer care was second to none."

For many people, social care business support receptionist Catherine O’Hara is the face of Bolton Council.

Going out of her way to put service users at ease, Catherine even keeps a supply of jigsaws and colouring books handy to entertain young visitors to the office.

Here professional knowledge and friendly approach has seen her described as “a shining example of what a council employee should be”.

Bolton Council’s executive cabinet member for corporate resources Cllr Akhtar Zaman said:

“As a council we deliver a diverse range of services. One thing that remains constant is the dedication to excellent customer care, as demonstrated by these nominees.

Our hard working staff are at the heart of everything we do and this recognition is well deserved.”

Residents can vote for the Best Customer Care award, supported by the Bolton News, by emailing and sending the name of their choice to boltonsbest@bolton.gov.uk.

The vote deadline is 5pm on Friday, November 16. Anyone is eligible to vote, but only once.

Votes will then be counted and the winner will be announced at the awards ceremony on Wednesday December 5 at the Albert Halls.

The event is kindly sponsored by the council’s IT supplier Agilisys, who cover the full cost of the event.