SALISBURY City Council is celebrating after being awarded the National Association of Local Councils (NALC) Quality Gold award.

The city council is now one of a select group of parish councils who have been awarded this status; 53 including Salisbury City Council in England - there are 10,000 parish councils in England - and 6th parish council in Wiltshire to do so.

The Mayor of the City of Salisbury, Councillor John Walsh said: “The award of NALC Quality Gold rewards the hard work and dedication of the City Council staff and fellow Councillors.

"I am delighted that we have been awarded Quality Gold and, as I enter my second year as mayor due to Covid-19, I look forward to serving the residents of the city once more as chairman of a Quality Gold Council.”

The Quality Gold Award shows that a council is at the forefront of best practice and achieves excellence in governance, community leadership and council development.

Quality Gold councils provide leadership for their communities, bring people together, have excellent business planning processes, ensuring value for money as well as constantly seeking new innovations and opportunities to improve.

They also highlight the very best that parish councils, as a sector, can achieve for our communities.

The Wiltshire branch of NALC praised the city council for being an "active council".

The report from the Wiltshire branch of NALC said: “The panel drew attention to how impressive the council comes across operationally and in relation to staff achievements as well as cited the positive outcomes achieved by the council for the community, in terms of community engagement, diversity and innovation, in recent months. It is clear that this is an active council with evidence of strong capital and revenue budget planning. There is also strong evidence of community consultation, engagement and partnership.”