The prestigious title was awarded to the Council last week (11 September) at the Connected Britain Awards.
The award was recognition of the Council’s ongoing work to drive forward digital innovation in the city, making bold changes to create opportunities and improve residents’ everyday lives.
Working with our partners across the city, the Council has continued to deliver innovative projects such as:
- Opened a Material Recycling Facility which uses AI to sort and process recyclable waste thereby enabling the Council to process recyclable waste to 99% purity.
- Worked with City Fibre, Virgin Media O2 and BT Openreach to establish a leading full-fibre network which covers 96% of the city.
- Working with JLR, West Midlands 5G and other Local Authorities to help the West Midlands become a 5G innovation region. This will directly help CCC focus on transforming Adult Social care, improving outcomes and reducing unnecessary visits with monitoring technology.
- Established a Strategic Energy Partnership with E.ON focussed on carbon reduction, energy efficiency and economic growth.
- Created a new smart water network to remotely collect and analyse data on water usage to track flow, identify loss of water and fix leaks
- Deployed of Small Cells by Freshwave and BT onto Council assets to increase coverage and data demands of visitors and residents
In addition to winning Digital Council of the year, the Council was also the finalist in two other awards for its work encouraging digital inclusion across the city.
Cllr Richard Brown, Cabinet Member for Strategic Finance and Resources, said: “I’m absolutely delighted that we’ve won this award. It’s a testament to the hard work of our officers and the dedication of our partners.
“As a Council we’re committed to improving the lives of our residents. These projects are innovative but tangible and they’re already having a marked difference on people’s everyday lives.
“What I would say to residents is that this award is just the beginning, and we won’t be resting on our laurels. We will continue to work tirelessly with our partners to innovate and improve our city”
Cllr Patricia Hetherton, Cabinet Member for City Services, said: “As an organisation, we’ve been developing some really innovative projects and it’s fantastic that that work has been recognised like this.
“Of course, we’re very lucky to have some fantastic partners and brilliant council officers who help us deliver these schemes. I would like to thank all of them for their continued support.
“Our ultimate aim is improving the lives of our residents, and we’ll keep developing, innovating and delivering projects like these in order to do that. “
The Connected Britain awards are run by Total Telecom. Through the awards they aim to recognise the most significant and innovative organisations, solutions and programmes that are shaping Britain’s digital future.
You can read more about the winners online.
For more information about the Council’s Digital Strategy, visit our website.