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The finalists, Young Local Authority of the Year 2008

Adjudications

At the adjudicators' meeting to determine the results of the Young Local Authority of the Year 2008, the following observations were made about the 12 papers presented:

Birmingham City Council (Raffaela Goodby and Bella Jones)
Theme: love
The device of allowing us to assume that Alex and Ashley were in a heterosexual relationship worked well. A reasoned call for equality in romantic love for same-sex couples.

East Sussex County Council Team 1 (Anna Jones and Tessa McGilvary)
Theme: compassion
A moving paper presenting compelling examples. They had carried out their own research and combined it with a well-considered, thoughtful working through of the definition.

East Sussex County Council Team 2 (Darren Elliott and Polly Reynolds)
Theme: success
This excellent paper succeeded in demonstrating the diversity of success, reminding us that for some people getting out of bed in the morning is success. A lively, confident presentational style – one of the most effective teams of the day.

Fenland District Council (Hetty Thornton and Amy Wilson)
Theme: courage
This paper was notable for its flawless teamwork and assured presentation. They used the unlikely but convincing example of a so-called murderer as a symbol of courage.

Hampshire County Council (Andrew Boutflower and Emma Gordon)
Theme: tolerance
Intellectual firepower and impressive maturity of thinking in a well-considered, beautifully written deconstruction of the complexities of the word. Their sources and references were delightfully varied and the paper was studded with wit and elegant epithets.

London Borough of Haringey (Lucy Cranshaw and Becky Cribb)
Theme: democracy
A sound examination of the role of democracy in an apparently apathetic society. The paper offered us a bold solution to the familiar problem of how to make our society more democratic. Two gutsy presenters who used humour well.

Hertfordshire County Council (David Butcher and Keir Mann)
Theme: freedom
A well-researched paper which needed a stronger introduction. The comparisons of freedom in societies as diverse as Iraq and Hertfordshire were cleverly inter-woven.

London Borough of Hillingdon (Esther Bray and Dan Kennedy)
Theme: humanity
A compassionate paper with a powerful beginning and a rousing end. The paper did need to tell us more about the essence of being human – including the flaws which are common to us all.

Midlothian Council (Fiona Duncan and Iain Pemble)
Theme: justice
The facts of a shocking case of domestic violence were used to good effect to compel us to ponder the administration of justice, even if the scope of the paper was somewhat limited.

North East Derbyshire District Council (Sarah Clow and Julia Tomlinson)
Theme: identity
Thoughtful examination of the concept of place identity with a practical suggestion of how to apply it to improve cohesion in our communities. Expressive, nicely paced delivery.

South Tyneside Council (James Davies and Dan Jackson)
Theme: equality
The word was effectively placed in practical terms in the everyday lives of people working in local government. They should have passed more from one to the other and the paper over-ran, incurring a penalty.

Torbay Council (Sarah Paul and Jo Penhaligon)
Theme: idealism
A paper on body image which worked well in itself with well-chosen and shocking quotes, but was only loosely related to the concept of idealism.

A Spirit of the Programme award was given to Lisa Milton of Torbay Council, a member of a second Torbay team which qualified automatically for the final, but was disqualified when the other half of the team was unable to take part. Lisa delivered the paper solo on a non-competitive basis.