Cambridgeshire County Council is proud to announce that it has been shortlisted as a finalist in four of the 2025 Local Government Chronicle (LGC) Awards categories.

The LGC Awards celebrate the very best in local government, highlighting councils across the country that demonstrate outstanding leadership, creativity, and impact in serving their communities.

This year, the council has been nominated for awards in the following four categories – Community involvement, Health & social care, Future places and Innovation. Connecting Cambridgeshire’s cutting-edge work helped to secure the shortlistings for the latter two categories:

Future places: this nomination demonstrated innovative connectivity projects, a private 5G Open Radio Access Network (RAN), development of an augmented reality experience, and enhanced mobile coverage analysis. Leveraging government and commercial funding and innovative procurement methods to deliver efficiency, and value and showcase scalable solutions that reduce carbon footprints, create jobs, and support sustainable connectivity.

Innovation: Cambridgeshire’s ‘Dig Once’ policy secured a nomination by demonstrating improved connectivity and reduced carbon emissions, while reducing disruption to communities. The policy integrated fibre ducting into new transport infrastructure projects, resulting in a large CO2 reduction and significantly less disruption to road users, thanks to the proactive installation of ducting for new road projects.

Leader of Cambridgeshire County Council, Councillor Lucy Nethsingha said: “Being shortlisted finalists for these four awards is a huge honour and is testament to the positive changes our members and staff are driving forward.

“It highlights the importance of our work in creating a greener, fairer, and more caring Cambridgeshire and in supporting our communities to be both inclusive and sustainable. We look forward to sharing our submissions with the judging panels in the coming weeks and to celebrating alongside the best in local government later this year.”

LGC editor Sarah Calkin said: “We received almost 1,000 entries to the LGC Awards 2025, making it another record-breaking year and meaning all those on the shortlist should be extremely proud to have made the cut. A huge thank you to our judging panels of senior council officers who have tirelessly sifted through all the entries on top of extremely demanding day jobs.

“At a time when many councils are embarking on huge change, it is more important than ever to take a moment to recognise the massive difference local government makes to the communities it serves and celebrate the teams and individuals going the extra mile to do so.

“It’s brilliant to see the whole local government family represented on this year’s shortlist – from town councils to combined authorities – as well as all four nations of the UK. Best of luck to all of those shortlisted.”

The winners of the LGC Awards will be announced at a ceremony on 11 June this year, where councils from across the UK will come together to celebrate innovation and progress in local government.