Awards Acknowledge the Excellence of East Gippsland Shire
The East Gippsland Shire has been acknowledged at the 2021 LGPro Awards of Excellence, taking out three of the ten awards on the night.
One Gippsland Chair, Cr Brett Tessari said the result was an incredible outcome for one of the region’s councils following a very difficult year.
“The awards are highly prized across Victoria because they recognise not only determination and excellence but in the case of East Gippsland Shire, the ability to show leadership in times of crisis,”
“Council’s recognition is probably not surprising to locals who will have been acutely aware of the efforts of Local Government in the past 12 months,” Cr Tessari said.
Cr Mendy Urie, Mayor of East Gippsland Shire stated that five of council’s projects were recognised as award finalists and to have three projects receive top honours was indeed a fantastic achievement.
“Overall these five projects provide a great snapshot of the initiatives council delivers for the community,” Cr Urie said
“It also demonstrates that the quality of planning, design, construction and delivery of programs in East Gippsland is first-class,” she concluded.
East Gippsland has lived through drought, devastating bushfires and like all parts of the state, the impacts of the Coronavirus.
LGPro is a peak body representing Local Government in Victoria and last week’s results are only the second time in the award’s 17-year history that East Gippsland Shire has achieved this outcome.
“This is the real-life example of the maxim ‘when the going gets tough, the tough get going,” Cr Tessari concluded.
East Gippsland Shire took out the following awards:
1. Service Delivery Initiative – the Council established a Mobile Recovery Service during the 2019/20 bushfires, coordinating the 21 organisations responding to the fires. For 10 weeks the service went to 48 impacted areas supporting people who couldn’t leave their properties due to the fires.
2. Community Assets and Infrastructure Initiative, projects over $2.5 million – the Bosworth Road Recreation Area project has transformed a disused landfill into a landscaped area for the community. Trees and vegetation are used to stop rainfall from leaching into the remnant waste and going into groundwater and waterways.
3. Sustainability Initiative – the Bright Futures East Gippsland project began with a $1.8 million Federal Government grant via the Community Energy Efficiency Program. It enabled the Council’s four biggest energy-using facilities to undertake energy efficiencies and adopt renewable energies.