ROYSTON Town Council have voted unanimously to re-apply for quality council status.

The decision was made by members of the authority’s Finance Committee on Monday night as it is coming up to four years since the initial award.

Quality status shows a council is operating at a high standard and its books are in order - in Royston’s case this has meant North Herts District Council has entrusted the running of the market to the town council.

Councillor Lindsay Davidson, speaking at Monday’s meeting, said: “I think to be honest with you we really must renew, we put in a lot of work to win this accreditation.

“I really think it would look extremely bad if having won this accreditation we now say we don’t want to keep it going.

“I know we haven’t seen a lot of particularly concrete advantages to being a quality council, but with the new Localism Bill that is coming through and with more power seemingly being passed through to the lower echelons of local government I do believe we must have every possible advantage to show ourselves to be a council who can cope and take on new powers.”

To receive the award the council must pass a number of tests set by National Association of Local Councils and other government bodies and a public consultation will be launched.

Since the authority last received the accreditation in 2007 a number of factors have changed but members were confident they will rise to challenge.