Whanganui Chronicle
  • Whanganui Chronicle home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Taranaki
  • National Park
  • Whakapapa
  • Ohakune
  • Raetihi
  • Taihape
  • Marton
  • Feilding
  • Palmerston North

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • New Plymouth
  • Whanganui
  • Palmertson North
  • Levin

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Whanganui Chronicle

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

Abe Leach
By Abe Leach
Multimedia journalist·Whanganui Chronicle·
12 Dec, 2019 04:00 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

The Trustpower Community Awards were recently stopped. Photo / File

The Trustpower Community Awards were recently stopped. Photo / File

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.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Councillors discussed the community awards at this week's council meeting.
Photo / Bevan Conley
Councillors discussed the community awards at this week's council meeting. Photo / Bevan Conley

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.

READ MORE:
• Whanganui Health Awards returns for another year
• Whanganui named New Zealand's most beautiful city at Beautiful Awards
• Whanganui District Council's digital transformation recognised at awards evening
• More awards for Chronicle

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"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.

Discover more

Politics

Letters: Mammogram 'scam'

11 Dec 04:00 PM

Chilli sauce business heats up

13 Dec 04:00 PM

End of Life Choice debate rages on

12 Dec 04:00 PM

How the 'Laird of Wanganui' helped form modern NZ

15 Dec 04:00 PM

"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 suggested awards could be given away by the Awa.
Photo / Bevan Conley
Councillor James Barron suggested awards could be given away by the Awa. Photo / Bevan Conley

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.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"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.

Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Whanganui Chronicle

Kāinga Ora needs to be ‘responsive to need’, says minister

04 Jul 06:00 PM
Whanganui Chronicle

Work begins on key phase of port project

04 Jul 06:00 PM
Whanganui Chronicle

Pop star to speak on new book at Whanganui Literary Fest

04 Jul 04:57 PM

There’s more to Hawai‘i than beaches and buffets – here’s how to see it differently

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Kāinga Ora needs to be ‘responsive to need’, says minister

Kāinga Ora needs to be ‘responsive to need’, says minister

04 Jul 06:00 PM

'We want to take a very detailed specific look at what Whanganui needs' – Chris Bishop.

Work begins on key phase of port project

Work begins on key phase of port project

04 Jul 06:00 PM
Pop star to speak on new book at Whanganui Literary Fest

Pop star to speak on new book at Whanganui Literary Fest

04 Jul 04:57 PM
Premium
Gardening: Pruning deciduous fruit trees and roses

Gardening: Pruning deciduous fruit trees and roses

04 Jul 04:00 PM
From early mornings to easy living
sponsored

From early mornings to easy living

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Whanganui Chronicle e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Whanganui Chronicle
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP