The international panel of world-renowned
judges at this year’s finals, which celebrated its 10th
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."
The full results, citations and
photographs of the winners are available on the website at
