WEST Devon Borough Council's land charges department has scooped a national award for customer satisfaction for local authority searches.

 West Devon's Claire Fryer was celebrated for her commitment to the customer at the eighth national Local Land Charges Awards.

This is the third year that West Devon has been recognised for its Local Authority Searches.

Claire accepted her award at the ceremony hosted by TV presenter Hazel Irvine in Bristol earlier this month.

The national awards celebrate the work and achievements of local authority local land charges departments, which carry out the land and property searches required for conveyancing tran-sactions in England and Wales.

For this category, Land Data asked solicitors and licensed conveyancers across the country to vote and provide feedback on the local authority local land charges team that they feel had consistently delivered a high level of customer service over the last year.

Voters are asked to consider quality, efficiency, reliability and value for money when making their choice and in-depth scoring criteria are used by judges to select the winner.

Land Data's chief executive commented: 'Congratulations to all the award winners.

'The Land Data awards celebrate service excellence and highlight the importance of improvement; it's an honour to celebrate the excellent service from local government local land charges teams who are delivering outstanding results in a difficult climate.'