Council projects in awards finals
The new Ngaruawahia-to-Horotiu cycleway and Perry Bridge are among four Waikato council projects named as finalists in this year’s Local Government New Zealand Excellence Awards.
Waikato District Council is a finalist in the award for Best Practice in Governance, Leadership and Strategy for its North Waikato Integrated Growth Management project, and in the award for Best Practice Contribution to Local Economic Development category for the Te Awa River Ride — Nga¯ ruawa¯ hia to Horotiu¯ .
Waipa¯ District Council is a finalist in the Fulton Hogan award for Community Engagement for its project Out of the Shadows — Bringing Waipa¯ ’s Heritage to Life, and the Waikato Mayoral Forum in the award for Service Delivery and Asset Management for the RATA (Road Asset Technical Accord) programme.
The awards recognise and celebrate the key leadership role that local government plays in communities around the country.
The North Waikato Integrated Growth Management Business Case had Waikato District Council, Auckland Council, Hamilton City Council, NZTA, the Waikato Regional Council, Auckland Transport, the Ministry of Education and two district health boards co-operating to develop a business case for managing and proactively planning for expected growth in the district over the next 30 years.
Judges welcomed the initiative as a holistic approach and a “means of future-proofing and preparing for clear challenges of future population growth”.
Waipa¯ District Council’s Out of the Shadows project inspired conversation about Waipa¯ ’s rich history, in preparation for a proposed significant increase in heritage investment, including plans for a Waipa¯ Discovery Centre in Te Awamutu.
The RATA project, initiated by the Waikato Mayoral Forum, is a collaboration between nine Councils in the Waikato region to improve strategic road asset management planning.
Judges praised it as an “excellent example of nine councils collaborating on roading, joining together to improve strategic road asset management planning with sharing of experience and knowledge that led to increased efficiency and effective regional service delivery”.
LGNZ President Dave Cull says that being named as a finalist is a significant achievement and reflects strong leadership and the innovative work being delivered by councils across the country.
The finalists incorporate best practice criteria under LGNZ’s CouncilMARK excellence programme which is designed to improve the public’s knowledge of the work councils are doing in their communities and to support individual councils to further improve the service and value they provide.
“Overall the judges felt that the strongest entries demonstrated a strong strategic focus, clear outcomes, measured results, cost benefit analysis and engagement with external organisations — particularly a collaborative approach with stakeholders, and meaningful engagement with iwi and Ma¯ ori.“
Winners will be announced at the LGNZ conference dinner in Christchurch on 16 July.