Dungannon, Northern Ireland

Press release for immediate release 13.11.06

The international panel of world-renowned judges at this year’s finals, which celebrated its 10^th year, listened to presentations from 47 communities and projects from 16 countries across the globe. This year’s final also saw the inclusion of a new judging criteria for both projects and communities, Healthy Lifestyles.

The finalists are divided into 5 categories according to their average daytime population. In addition there are winners in the Project and Bursary categories.

The winners were Dungannon, Ireland (up to 20,000), Brasschaat, Belgium (up to 75,000), Gateshead, England (up to 200,000), Waitakere, New Zealand (up to 750,000) and Dongguan, PR China (over 750,000).

An award was also given out for each individual judging criteria, the winners were, Muskiz, Spain (Enhancement of the Landscape), Dongguan, PR China (Heritage Management), Randwick City Council, Australia (Environmentally Sensitive Practices), Ucleulet, Canada (Community Sustainability), Whittlesea, Australia (Planning for the Future) and Meilinyicun, PR China (Healthy Lifestyles).

Chief Executive Alan Smith said of this year’s finals: "We've had a tremendous welcome and interest from the city of Hangzhou, who have gone out of their way to make LivCom delegates welcome. Although this hasn't been the biggest field at LivCom, we've had plenty of thoughtful and interesting presentations. Perhaps the most pleasing aspect is the new delegates who have come, such as Tirana (Albania), Mandurah (Australia) and Ucleulet (Canada) and who clearly got an enormous amount out of the experience and learnt as much as they could."

Commenting on the success of this year’s event, Steve Palfreman, a member of the judging panel said "There's a whole host of advantages in coming to LivCom, whether as a judge, contestant or observer. It brings communities together with a common course, and the big thing is the huge amount of knowledge that can be gained. In short, the problems are common to all communities, even if the solutions are different, and we can all learn something.

The first year of a new criteria - in this case Healthy Living - can be demanding. But the delegates have responded well to the challenge. They've made a good start but where some of them have come unstuck is that they didn't analyse the information they received to work out whether they were providing the right activities in response."

Describing what the awards are about, another member of the judging panel, Rob Small from Australia said "The LivCom Awards are all about setting benchmarks. Everyone is learning all the time and there's been a gradual raising of the bar. What was best practice a few years ago for a few communities is often now standard all over the world."

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* The colour of an award DOES NOT indicate the communities final placing – it is a standard. So Gold is excellent but DOES NOT mean first place – it is possible to come 2^nd and win a Gold award.