Award Recognition is Welcome (23 November 2019)

I was lucky enough to be at the presentation this week of Sport NSW’s ‘NSW Champion of Sports Awards’ where Coffs Harbour City Council was named as this year’s Local Council of the Year.

Among the achievements that led to the Award was the fact that Coffs Harbour has delivered a number of facility upgrades in partnership with sports and all levels of government – and won the International Festivals and Events Association’s World Festival and Event City accolade for the fifth year in a row.

The major upgrade this year was, of course, the multi-million dollar transformation of the C.ex Coffs International Stadium. However, the Award also included the many, much smaller but equally important, upgrades and improvements to sports facilities that happen all year round.

Council staff work closely with a wide range of national, state and local sporting bodies to deliver these sporting facility upgrades for our community such as lighting, drainage and amenity block upgrades.

Community volunteers also undertake a very important role in helping to promote and support a wide variety of sports, active recreation and healthy living for locals and visitors – and we’re always very grateful for their participation and input.

Planning Excellence Highlighted

This week also saw Council receive a Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) NSW Award in the ‘From Plan to Place’ category for the Jetty4Shores Project.

This category is for initiatives or projects that achieve significant, positive changes through planning.

The accolade is particularly significant because the PIA is the top planning body in Australia and the win means that we now go through into the national finals.

While recognition from such a body is very welcome, what is perhaps more satisfying is that we always aimed to provide a top quality community and tourist facility to enhance the foreshores area – and we’ve certainly achieved that judging by the high numbers of people who enjoy that space daily and the very positive feedback we receive.

It’s very satisfying to see a project deliver exactly what we planned.

Pic cap: Pictured at the awards ceremony are GM Steve McGrath, Group Leader City Prosperity Nikki Greenwood, Suellen Bordignon, Council’s Sports Development Coordinator, Mayor Denise Knight and Dan Heather, Council’s Section Leader Stadium and Major Events.