The MJ Awards shortlists

The MJ Awards shortlists are now online and you can view the categories and the shortlisted councils on the MJ Awards 2009 page.

These went live yesterday and resulted in a record traffic day for the site. Interest was so great at one point on that particular page the site slowed down considerably so thanks for your patience if you got caught in a bottleneck. We intend to streamline this page a little to avoid this problem in future.

In common with previous years, we have included pdfs of the council submissions. The reasons for this are two-fold: the section serves both as a useful guide for councils considering entering the awards and, in combination with previous years' entries, a good practice file.

The commended councils' submissions for 2009 will be live on the site shortly.

Remember, the awards night takes place on the 25th June at London's Hilton and will be hosted by BBC TV newscaster Huw Edwards.

If you have been shortlisted, you can download a booking form for the awards night here.

Good luck!

The new unitaries and the directory

The directory team was busy yesterday making changes to the site database to handle the new unitaries.

The nine new councils take over the responsibilities of more than 40 authorities. To avoid any confusion, and for the foreseeable future, the directory will reflect this shift in responsibility.

Consequently, councils such as Crewe and Nantwich and Berwick-upon-Tweed will still be listed in the directory, but the entry will be accompanied with an explanatory note and link to the new unitary authority now delivering services in that area.

Ultimately, the dissolved authorities will be removed from the 'live data' and included in the reorganisation section.