A groundbreaking approach to community partnerships by Porirua City Council took the Supreme title at the 2009 New Zealand Post Local Government Excellence Awards in Palmerston North last night (eds: Sunday 6 September 2009).
The council’s “Villages Planning Programme” puts communities in charge of developing a vision for their neighbourhoods and then partnering with the council to make it happen.
In its awards submission, the council said the vision is brought together through community consultation and developed into Village Plans, which set out the community’s goals and aspirations for the future of their neighbourhood.
Eight Porirua communities had so far engaged in the Village Planning process, with diverse plans reflecting the differing nature of the areas – from a new waterfront promenade and skatepark, to a beach management plan and community fair.
The council says the programme has revolutionised the way it works with its communities and has demanded greater engagement from outside agencies. It had also put pressure on resident, cultural and community organisations to achieve community engagement.
Announcing the award, the judging panel said it was very impressed by the project and liked the “bottom-up” approach. “This is an example of real relationship building based on meaningful multi-level community engagement.”
The judges noted that the Porirua Council’s programme was the best and most complete of several entries featuring the “very positive emergence” of projects that brought community engagement around council planning processes down from “whole-of-district” to the level of the towns, suburbs and villages where people actually live.
The New Zealand Post Local Government Excellence Awards, administered by the Society of Local Government Managers (SOLGM), were presented in four categories - Council/Community Relationships, Building Organisational Capability, Joined Up Local Government and Improved Local Regulation - with the Supreme Award selected from among the category winners. The Supreme winner received $5,000, and each of the other category winners received $2,000.
The Porirua City Council programme won the Council/Community Relationships category.
Building Organisational Capability Award
Manukau City Council won the Building Organisational Capability Category Award with its project: “Managing Manukau City’s Growth and Development – the Enterprise Asset View.”
The council said it was important that its $6 billion of assets are well managed. Enterprise Asset View (EAV) is a sophisticated new asset management software tool that centralises asset information and, by applying this technology in an innovative and pragmatic way, the council had achieved the benefits of an integrated system at a fraction of the cost of the traditional approach.
“It is a unique solution recognised for its capability to add value to the council’s current operations with its efficient use of information and increased performance,” the council said in its submission.
The judges were impressed with how the project brought together a common view of key asset information across the council and believed other similar-sized councils should be interested in it.
Joined Up Local Government Award
New Plymouth District Council’s “Alcohol Strategy” took the Joined Up Local Government Category Award.
The strategy and implementation plan was aimed at identifying objectives and recommendations relating to alcohol harm for the district and highlighting challenges, issues and outcomes. It was developed by a working group that also involved the Taranaki District Health Board, New Plymouth Safer Community Council, Police, Ministry of Social Development, ACC and New Plymouth Injury Safe.
In its submission, the council says the strategy takes a whole-of-community approach. The action plan included a range of new and established initiatives with other actions to be added over time.
“Working together, the council and its partners can achieve better and more sustainable outcomes to reduce alcohol-related harms and to promote safer alcohol-related environments for the community.”
The judges saw the project as a good example of a collaborative approach to developing a community strategy. “We liked the way all the key players had been engaged and the fact that the issue being addressed is a very real and pressing one to many New Zealand Communities.”
Improved Local Regulation Award
A new approach to erosion and sediment control on small development sites earned the North Shore City Council the Improved Local Regulation category Award.
The project, in response to major concerns across the Auckland region about sediment pollution from development site earthworks, introduced a new system to monitor the management of erosion and sediment control on small sites not subject to resource consent monitoring.
It integrates support and enforcement of erosion and sediment controls into the council’s building consent processing and inspection regime.
In its submission, the council said significant environmental benefits are obtained with minimal extra expenditure or staff resource.
The judging panel described the project as a good example of “cutting through the red tape” to help customers comply efficiently and economically with regulations. It brought together the building and RMA silos and was clearly focused on effectively achieving regulatory objectives – “although its impact in terms of the costs faced by applicants was less clear.”
Judges’ Commendations
The judging panel awarded discretionary commendations to three other projects.
Council/Community Relations
Waitakere City Council’s project “Massey Matters: Making Massey and Even Better Place to Live” received a judges’ commendation in the Council/Community Relations category.
Massey Matters began in 2006 as a 10-year project with long-term resourcing from the council. Through connecting and coordinating residents, community groups, businesses, the council and government agencies, it aims for achieve long-term, community-driven sustainable neighbourhood renewal and development for Massey, a large suburb of 25,000 residents.
The judges described it as an exciting example of effective community engagement and likely to attract widespread interest from other local authorities.
Building Organisational Capability
A Rotorua City Council project to develop a fully-integrated, customer-centric organisation received a judges’ commendation in the Building Organisational Capability category.
It arose from an internal workplace survey, in which staff identified customer service limitations, and new organisational vision values that evolved from staff recommendation. Under the “Super Service” project, all staff champion a service excellence ethos and work collaboratively towards more cost effective, efficient service delivery and ongoing improvement in customer satisfaction. In its submission the council acknowledges the support and assistance it has received from third parties parties, including other local authorities.
The judges said the project took on the challenge of improving the customer experience on an organisation-wide basis. While a focus on customer service was not in itself an innovative idea, they were impressed to see an example of a local authority that “got on and did it.” .
Joined Up Local Government
A home safety awareness project drew a judges’ commendation for the Stratford District Council.
The project, in conjunction with primary funder the Taranaki Electricity Trust and a range of other community and government organisations, was established in 2007 to promote home safety awareness to central Taranaki residents though information and education. It also provides and installs free smoke alarms to homes in the region.
The judges said it was a great example of how community resources can be mobilised to address an important community issue through joint work across a range of interested organisations. While not as innovative as other entries in the category, they were impressed by how results had been achieved through careful planning and hard work.
Background Notes
- The awards have been running for 12 years.
- There were a record 44 entries in the 2009 awards (2008: 38 entries)
- The 2009 winners were announced at the SOLGM annual conference at Palmerston North.
- The core judging panel comprised:
- Sue Piper, Chair, Local Government Commission
- Graham Weir, Director, New Zealand Institute of Management Central
- Adrienne Staples, Mayor, South Wairarapa District Council and the Local Government New Zealand nominee on the panel
- Rod Titcombe, immediate past Chief Executive, Manawatu District Council
- Don Day, Manager Local Government Relations, New Zealand Post
ENDS