COUNCIL officials in Southend are among the best listeners in the country.

Southend Council has been presented with a national award for the way it handles and acts on feedback from residents.

Govmetric - the national system used to measure customer satisfaction - declared the authority “a case study in excellence”.

Andrew Moring, the Tory councillor responsible for support services, said: “We are very grateful to our customers for giving us their feedback.

“As this award indicates, we train our staff not just to take all these responses very seriously, but to monitor them and to follow up any issues raised.”