Castle Point Council's leisure department is celebrating becoming the borough's first department to win Investors In People status.
The department received the honour from Essex Training and Enterprise Council after a rigorous assessment procedure and years of preparation.
A council spokesman said: "It has taken three years for us to prepare for this, because before you make the final application, you have to go through a lengthy process of making sure you meet the right standards, for example by having staff appraisals.
"It's quite a difficult level to reach and we're very happy"
Rewarding - Anne Boyd, Steve Ham, Chris Hitchen and Steve Packham collect their award from Essex TEC
Picture: ANDY PALMER
Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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