It is heartening to learn today that Labour council leader Kate Hollern has issued the instruction that council officers must in future get permission from senior councillors for award trips funded by public money.

Her ruling follows the decision to use European money, earmarked to help unemployed people from poor areas people back into work, to send a group of officers to London for an awards ceremony.

The decision to use money from this 'pot' for such a trip was clearly a serious misjudgement.

The matter was made worse by the fact that 10 people were sent when Lancashire County Council, which also had a shortlisted candidate, sent just three.

On top of this, it appears that two of the Blackburn contingent were not even from the winner's department.

And the issue was also not helped by the original council claim that the trip was funded from private money.

If only three had been sent and, more importantly, if the money had not been drawn from a fund meant to help the unemployed, there would be little reason to criticise.

Celebrating success is not a sin. It can raise the morale of a workforce and can reward outstanding performances.

One of the unfortunate consequences of this controversy is that it may have soured what should have been a straightforward morale booster.

Hamid Patel, in taking the 'Best Young Manager', has clearly done exceptionally well and the issues surrounding the funding of the awards trip do not detract from his achievement.

However those who took the decision to fund the awards outing from this particular fund made a lamentable decision which councillors were right to castigate.

Thankfully Councillor Hollern has reacted to these events in exactly the right way and shown that she will not tolerate this kind of thing happening in future.