A gratitude project acknowledging essential workers, food and garden organics collection services and an interactive map to discover art and culture are some of the projects from councils that were recognised at this year’s NSW Local Government Excellence Awards.

The awards, presented by Local Government Professionals NSW last week, were handed out in a number of categories, including community development and partnership, innovative leadership and asset and infrastructure.

Minister for Local Government Wendy Tuckerman said in a statement that these awards “demonstrate how hard council staff work every day for local communities”.

“In a difficult year dealing with lockdowns and natural disasters, they have stepped up when their communities have needed them, to support residents, families and local businesses across NSW.”

Acknowledging essential workers

As councils continue their recovery from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, many of the winning projects directly tackled the challenges of the pandemic, including The Gratitude Project from Bland Shire Council.

Council worked with Evolution Mining in 2021 to launch the project, which aimed to acknowledge essential workers who helped keep the community going throughout the pandemic.

Members of the public were encouraged to fill out an online form to nominate an essential worker or community volunteer to thank.

Winners were randomly drawn each week throughout September and a total of 40 nominees were awarded with a $100 Why Leave Town Voucher to be spent at local participating businesses.

Supporting businesses

Cumberland City Council addressed the growing demand for food relief by setting up Community Support Hubs.

It partnered with OzHarvest, Good360, and Resilience NSW to provide food hampers and general grocery and COVID safety equipment bags for distribution to the public.

Over 3,700 hampers were distributed through the hubs to community members in need from three locations identified across the LGA, including Merrylands, Wentworthville and Berala.

Burwood Council’s economic recovery program had it reimagining its streets as places for people, transforming policy and streamlining processes.

Through the development of an internal taskforce made up of 16 people, Council also mobilised staff to deliver a program designed to help businesses bounce back from extended lockdowns.

This resulted in a 150 per cent increase in Council’s engagement with businesses, over $500,000 provided in financial relief and over 85 per cent of businesses reporting an increase in business revenue.

Fleet transformation

Central Coast Council took out an award in the Innovative Leadership category for its Fleet and Driver Management Transformation project.

It implemented contemporary solutions to replace its paper-based system for risk and safety management.

“We have built a new Corporate Affairs Directorate focused on improving systems and processes to deliver better services for our ratepayers and residents, whilst driving economic initiatives to enable regional growth,” Council Chief Executive Officer David Farmer said .

Management and rural challenge winners

Other awards were also handed out on the night, including the Local Government Intensive Dux Awards, which is award to participants of the Local Government Intensive Courses with the highest assessment result.

Ku-Ring-Gai Council won first place for The Australasian Management Challenge, a simulation-based team building program that uses real local government themes.

The Rural Management Challenge was won by Kiama Municipal Council. The challenge was developed for councils in rural and regional areas of NSW to develop skills to apply at their council.

The NSW Local Government Excellence Award winners are:

• Asset and Infrastructure
  • Project over $1.5 million: Georges River Council
  • Project under $1.5 million: Wollondilly Shire Council
• Community Development – Cumberland City Council
• Community Partnerships – Bland Shire Council
• Customer Experience – Northern Beaches Council
• Environmental Leadership – Randwick City Council
• Innovative Leadership
  • Population under 200,000 residents: Wollondilly Shire Council
  • Population over 200,000 residents: Central Coast Council
• Risk Management – Campbelltown City Council
• Special Project Initiative
  • Population under 200,000 residents: City of Newcastle
  • Population over 200,000 residents: Northern Beaches Council
• Organisational Diversity and Inclusion – Bellingen Shire Council
• People, Workplace, Wellbeing – City of Ryde Council
• Partnerships and Collaboration – Shellharbour City Council
• Supporting Local Enterprise – Burwood Council

Main image: Paul Ogden, Cathrine Harrison, Ben Brown, Michael Ross, Danny Andrews, Natalia Cowley, Phil Horan, Jamie Barclay, Andrew Robinson, Nick Carson.