In December last year, Blue Mountains City Council took out three Awards at the Local Government and Shires Association (LGSA) Environment Awards. These annual awards were established in 1998. Council took out the division award for Local Sustainability and won the overall award for local sustainability with its Blue Mountains – Our Future project.
This was a consultation process involving more than 6,000 people in shaping a vision of the Blue Mountains for the next 25 years.
“It is significant that these awards recognise work that Council has undertaken in partnership with the community,” Councillor Kevin Frappell said. “These latest awards mean that we have now received four awards in as many weeks for this project.
“Clearly there is recognition among our peers that this has been an outstanding project and a great success. It recognises the time, energy and commitment the community has to the future of the mountains. The strategy provides a framework for all of us to commit to action now and in the future to move towards a more sustainable Blue Mountains.
Decisions by the community are now guiding Council’s strategic direction for the next 25 years and detailed planning for the next four years.
The LGSA environment awards recognise outstanding projects which cover natural resource management and environmental sustainability. In 2004, more than 60 entries were received from Councils, large and small, throughout New South Wales ABS figures showed Council expenditure on environment protection throughout Australia increased by six per cent to $2.6 billion in 2002/03. A further $1.9 billion, an increase of nine per cent was spent by Councils on natural resource management.
