SWINDON Borough Council's Swindon Services has been shortlisted from hundreds of local authorities across the country for a prestigious national transport and vehicle maintenance award.

It is one of four finalists in line for the award from the Associa-tion of Public Service Excellence, in the category Internal Service Team of the Year Transport Services and Vehicle Mainten-ance.

Swindon Services, which provides fleet management and vehicle maintenance services to all areas of the council, beat 160 submissions from other local authorities to get on to the final shortlist.

The overall winner will be selected by an expert panel on Thursday, September 5 and the award will be made at the association's annual dinner later that evening.

John Short, director of Swin-don Services, said: "Getting on the shortlist is a great honour in itself and I'm hopeful the division will walk away with the award.

"Our fleet management section, which is part of the street services division, plays an integral part in delivering all council services.

"Its innovative working practices and procurement initiatives are now widely used as best practice within the industry, and have also won compliments from major private sector fleet management organisations."