Rochdale Council’s Town Hall Team has been named the inaugural winners of the Cleaning Team of the Year Award.
The awards, which are sponsored by the Association of Building Cleaning Direct Service Providers (ABCD) and Denis Rawlins, have been established to recognise and promote team achievement in the public sector and the judges said Rochdale showed ‘exceptional standards’, and were worthy winners.
The ceremony took place during the ABCD annual conference in Harrogate, and representatives from Rochdale’s cleaning team were on hand to receive the award from sponsor James White.
James White said: “All three finalists are outstanding in their own right, but as there has to be a winner, the judges felt Rochdale should take it this year for the unique challenges they face daily. Their standards of cleanliness were exceptional, which is no mean feat when you consider they have to maintain a very old Victorian Town Hall, which is increasingly being booked for high profile and diverse events such as weddings, gin conventions, boxing matches, and other exhibitions.”
The team in Rochdale is led by Peter Gurney, and when asked by the judges what the secret is to keeping a Victorian era Town Hall in tip-top condition he replied modestly ‘common sense’.
James White told the assembled delegates at the ABCD conference that such a down to earth view epitomised the attitude at Rochdale, but added that it does take many years’ experience, training and knowledge, to be able to know how to apply ‘common sense’.
Awards were also handed out for the two runners up, for Gateshead Council’s Team of Supervisors, and Rotherham Council’s Riverside House Team. Both sponsors commented on the high quality of applications they received this year.
