Council to bring back Whanganui community awards after more than a decade

A community awards programme is set to be reinstated in Whanganui but district councillors want it to have a revamp - and maybe a new name.

This week Whanganui District Council's principal corporate adviser Marianne Cavanagh brought the proposal to a council meeting to get feedback about the awards which are planned to be reinstated next year.

The inaugural community awards were established in 1983, and honoured around 200 people in the years until 2007 when the awards were stopped.

Mayor Hamish McDouall was in support of bringing back community awards, and said without the Trustpower Community Awards "there's nothing out there".

The Trustpower Community Awards recognised volunteers from around the country and were run for more than 25 years. The awards were stopped recently to make way for a new community engagement programme.

Under the proposal put to councillors, nominations for awards would be collected from late February to late March, and an awards presentation ceremony would take place in April.

McDouall said he would want to see the awards take place earlier in 2020.

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"If we wait, we have it in mid-winter and it doesn't reflect what someone's achieved in 2019, it starts to reflect what someone's achieved over the financial year and I think we need to get this kicked off."

Councillor Josh Chandulal-Mackay supported the reintroduction of awards, but didn't support the proposed "Whanganui Community Awards" name.

"I think that we should endeavour to be a little more creative if we can, something with a little more prestige attached to it," he said.

"I think 'community awards' sounds a bit mundane and ordinary, I'd like to see something more inventive."

The proposal suggests a panel of three elected members, chosen by the mayor, to review nominations, but Chandulal-Mackay said he wanted an external panellist appointed as well.

Councillor James Barron also wasn't a fan of the name, and suggested a way to fully incorporate Whanganui into the ceremony itself.

"An award is given by a person, and in Whanganui I can't think of a better person to embody the awards than the Awa."

Councillor Philippa Baker-Hogan brought up council's partnership with iwi, and suggested a Māori name could be used in the title of the awards.

"I think it would be good that we keep working on this to get it right and the fact that we share this with iwi and at the very least we would have them involved.

"Possibly they would have ideas around a specific Māori award."

All councillors voted in favour of the proposal to introduce the community awards, with minor tweaks able to be made. No decision was made on the name of the awards.