Local Govt excellence awards: Hastings District Council 'overwhelmed' with national wins

Hastings District Council accepting the Excellence Award for Cultural Wellbeing for Toitoi Hawke's Bay Arts & Events Centre. Photo / Supplied

Hastings District Council has scored its first -and second - wins at the Local Government Excellence Awards, with two of its three nominated projects topping their categories and the other receiving highly commended.

The Hastings Place-Based Housing Plan won the Kāinga Ora Homes and Communities Excellence award for Social Wellbeing and Toitoi Hawke's Bay Arts and Events Centre won the Creative New Zealand Excellence Award for Cultural Wellbeing.

The Mahi for Youth programme was also highly commended in the Kāinga Ora Homes and Communities Excellence award for Social Wellbeing.

The council has been a finalist in previous awards, but had never before.

Hastings mayor Sandra Hazlehurst said she felt "incredibly proud and humbled" to accept the awards.

"To be recognised on the national stage of local government is something I will never forget."

The Hastings Place-Based Housing Plan was developed in response to the severe housing shortage in the district and has been accepted by the Government as a pilot programme.

It is the second award the project has won, earlier in the year winning the BERL Award for Collaborative Government Action in the 2021 LGFA Taituarā Local Government Excellence Awards.

Hazlehurst said it is an endorsement of working in partnership with the community, central Government, iwi, non-government organisations and the commercial sector.

The LGNZ judges said it was a "stand-out project demonstrating innovation and leadership in housing processing and planning".

"Hastings District Council's collaboration with Government and non-government organisations to build homes is a fine example of what every council in the country should do."

Toitoi Hawke's Bay Arts and Events Centre manager Megan Peacock-Coyle said the award was "such an endorsement of what we've set out to do".

"We were up against some incredible projects and incredible things that other local government is doing, that was thrilling."

She said the council supports what Toitoi is doing, which is "quite new" and "kind of out there for the rest of New Zealand as far as performing arts venues go".

Hazlehurst said when the council sat down with the community at the beginning of the Toitoi reconstruction, the vision was to be recognised as the most significant arts, culture and events centre in New Zealand, and this award recognises that.

The judges said the revitalisation generated "a significant level of participation and use of the centre with a diverse range of communities and activities, revitalising and regenerating the central city".

"There will be ongoing contribution to the community, including social and economic development, through the arts and events centre."

The Mahi for Youth programme is a project Hazlehurst is "very proud of", placing 80 youth in training or work in the past year.

Hazlehurst said the awards were a recognition of all council staff's hard work and "everyone was overwhelmed".