Winner of:
Excellence in Placemaking Award

It’s Flaxmere’s Time

It’s Flaxmere’s Time is both a revitalisation programme for Hastings District’s lowest socioeconomic community and a means for building trust and engagement between the people of Flaxmere and the Council. The programme is an amalgam of housing development, parks development, expanded health, wellbeing, sporting opportunities and social services expansion. 

The Judges said: Hastings has actively harnessed the skills, expertise and resources of a wide range of partners both in Government, in the community and the community itself not least to create trust and a sense of pride in the community. The multifaceted approach focussed largely on people and human networks, not just building things. This is the very definition of local placemaking and makes Hastings a worthy winner of this, the inaugural placemaking award. 

See more award winning entries

Excellence in Cost-Effectiveness

Climate Resilience versus Recovery Costs for Transport Networks

Auckland Transport
Auckland Transport analysed 215 landslides from 2023 storms, showing prevention is far more cost effective than recovery. Preventative works cost as little as 15–30% of recovery, aligning with global findings.
Award Year: 2026
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Excellence in Organisation and People Development

Great Workplaces

Far North District Council
This initiative emerged from a staff survey taken during the first 2020 COVID-19 lockdown where 83 per cent of staff reported their productivity was the same or better working at
Award Year: 2022
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Excellence in Digital Local Government

Christchurch City Information Network (CCIN) – Early Fire Detection Sensor Network

Christchurch City Council
This is a highly successful pilot project of a sensor network as a means for detecting fires in the Waitākiri / Bottle Lake Forest Park. The network sends warnings to
Award Year: 2023
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