Council awarded for excellence

Several Council projects have bagged top honours in this year’s Local Government Professionals NSW Excellence Awards.

Council’s very popular Library2U initiative, which involved staff delivering 41,000 items to residents’ front doors during the COVID emergency last year, won the Customer Experience category. The delivery service was highly appreciated by the local community, providing much needed entertainment during the COVID lockdown.

Council was also a winner in the Community Development category with its Housing and Homelessness Project. Council has worked closely with key housing, homelessness and domestic violence services over the past two years to address housing and homelessness issues on the Northern Beaches. As a result of this work, there has been a 20% decrease in people who were homeless over the first two annual Homelessness Street Counts. As well, 43 homeless people were housed in 2020, and targets set to increase the provision of social and affordable housing.

Both Council’s Narrabeen Lagoon Boardwalk  and the Manly Beach Marine Parade Wave Early Warning System projects were highly commended. The Boardwalk on the northern foreshore of Narrabeen Lagoon was completed in November 2019, providing a safer route for cyclists, joggers and walkers while protecting the lagoon’s shoreline biodiversity.

The Early Warning System project involved Council setting up a tool, developed by the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Water Research Laboratory, which provides daily updates on possible coastal hazards such as heavy swells for people using Manly’s historic Marine Parade.

And last but not least, the winners of this year’s Australasian Management Challenge (NSW Division) were announced at the Excellence Awards, and Council’s Flamin' Galahs team came in second place. The Challenge pits teams from councils around NSW against one another in a competition which tests problem solving, team building and leadership skills.