Cheltenham Borough Council has been awarded a prestigious 'best in the region' award for its support for the local small business community.

Three other councils in Gloucestershire also made the regional shortlist.

Cheltenham was among 250 councils nationally who entered the inaugural Local Government Awards run by Britain's biggest business representation group and it emerged triumphant in the 'Covid-19 Support and Recovery' category.

This category also saw Cotswold District Council, Gloucester City Council and Stroud District Council shortlisted with only one council outside Gloucestershire - Cornwall - making it onto the shortlist. And, with Gloucester City Council also making the shortlist in the Programme of Business Support category it made for a very successful awards programme for the county.

The FSB (Federation of Small Businesses) had launched their inaugural Local Government awards as a way of highlighting those councils that had made the biggest impact on local SMEs during the Covid crisis and beyond.

And, at Friday's virtual online final, Cheltenham was named as the South West regional champion winners with judges being impressed by the council's work to help the local small business community with a wide-ranging package of innovative and supportive measures to keep businesses afloat during the pandemic.

Sam Holliday, FSB development manager for Gloucestershire and the West of England, said he was delighted that the hard work of many Gloucestershire councils had been recognised amidst a high-quality field of entries.

He said: "I am thrilled that Cheltenham won an award, and the efforts of Gloucester, Stroud and Cotswold were also recognised for their hard work and effort to help local SMEs through what has been a very challenging couple of years.

"Both the quality and quantity of entries from this region and beyond was incredibly high so all our local councils should feel very proud to be among the small group of those shortlisted in the region. We look forward to continuing to work with them all to ensure we have a vibrant and strong local SME community."

The regional/national winners of the awards, which were sponsored by Maybe* were:

South West regional winners:

• Covid-19 Support and Recovery: Cheltenham Borough Council
• Programme of Business Support: Cornwall Council
• Future-Ready: East Devon Council
• All Round Business Friendly: Bristol City Council

National (England) overall winners:

• Covid-19 Support and Recovery: London Borough of Lewisham
• Programme of Business Support: Hambleton District Council
• Future-Ready: Spelthorne Borough Council
• All Round Business Friendly: North East Lincolnshire Council

Full details of the regional and national winners can be found at https://www.fsb.org.uk/localgovernment.html#our-winners