And the 2022 Scottish Councillor award winners are….

Scotland’s 2022 Councillor Awards

This Wednesday (12th October), Dundee City Council hosted the 5th annual LGIU Scotland and CCLA Councillor awards in the the stunningly elaborate Caird Hall at Dundee City Chambers.

A sign of changing times, this year took the form of a three stranded hybrid event – some attendees and speakers joined us in person at the beautiful venue in Dundee, some speakers dialled in from Zoom, and the whole thing was broadcast live on YouTube for a wider audience to view. Make sure to check out the photo gallery at the bottom to see how the LGIU and CCLA recognise the tireless work of Scottish Councillors.

The ceremony was hosted by LGIU Chief Executive Jonathan Carr-West and BAFTA-nominated journalist Paul Murricane, with the audience made up of our esteemed shortlist and their families and friends, as well as Leaders, Chief Executives, MSPs and other stakeholders from across the sector to celebrate councillors who have gone above and beyond to support their communities during another challenging year.

Our speakers

We were delighted to be joined by several speakers and presenters including Cllr Bill Campbell (Lord Provost of Dundee), Cllr Steven Heddle (COSLA Vice President), Ben Macpherson MSP (Minister for Social Security and Local Government), Cllr Jackie McCamon (Dumfries & Galloway Council), Bailie Willie Sawers (Dundee City Council), Cllr Euan Jardine (Leader, Scottish Borders Council), Cllr John Alexander (Leader, Dundee City Council) and Heather Lamont (Director, Client Investments, CCLA).

After guests had enjoyed a drink and a considerable number of pies, the LGIU Chief Executive Jonathan Carr-West opened the awards by remarking,

“These awards are a real highlight of the year for everyone at LGIU because at LGIU we know how important councillors are. Everything that local government does comes back to councillors. And that matters because local governments matter. Councillor awards are an important chance to celebrate the incredible work of Councillors right across Scotland”

We then heard from Dundee’s Lord Provost, Cllr Bill Campbell who welcomed everyone to Dundee by extending a hand of friendship to everyone and remarked upon the range of excellent opportunities in Dundee.

The next speaker was Cllr Steven Heddle, the Vice-President of COLSA, who reminded us of the vital and unique role councillors play in our democracy by working tirelessly to put people first. Cllr Heddle emphasised the importance of strong local democratic governance and the need to empower people to make decisions that impact them, especially in the face of the challenges we face. Ben Macpherson MSP, the Minister for Social Security and Local Government, also joined us and was honoured to hear all the inspiring stories from the nominees and to celebrate the contributions of councillors with an important year ahead.

Montages were shown to demonstrate the impressive accomplishments of all the shortlisted councillors, focusing on key community projects that they had worked on and featuring interviews with residents who had been directly helped by the hard work of the councillors.

The winners!

There were five awards up for grabs this year with the categories and winners shown below,

Community Champion. Cllr David Macdonald – East Renfrewshire Council
Leader of the Year. Following this difficult year we feel it is essential to take this moment in time to celebrate all local leadership across Scotland from before and post the May 2022 local election.
Lifetime achievement year. Bailie Malcolm Cunning – Glasgow City Council (in memoriam)
Resilience and Recovery. Cllr Maureen Chalmers – South Lanarkshire Council
Young Councillor of the year. Cllr Connor McManus – Midlothian Council.

It was an amazing opportunity to gather in person to celebrate everything that’s good about local government, and we were pleased that this hybrid style event ensured that we could be joined by colleagues from across the country.

Congratulations to all our winners – we look forward to seeing you at the 2023 Cllr Awards!