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Strathfield Council Finalist for 4 LG Excellence Awards

For immediate release

14 May 2021

 

Strathfield Council has been recognised as a finalist in four categories of the Local Government Excellence Awards. The categories are customer service, emergency response, sustainability and community development.

Our finalist position in the Customer Service category is due to the organisation-wide Customer Improvement Program, which transformed service delivery to our community. Keeping in line with the core values of consistency, accuracy and timeliness, services were streamlined to create a one-stop shop for all residents’ needs including a new phone system, enhanced training, first point-of-contact resolution and style upgrade. This project became increasingly important during the pandemic, when Council was able to keep the Customer Service Centre open with bio-security measures in place.

Council was recognised for its Emergency Response to Covid-19, acknowledging the challenges facing a culturally diverse community in which many residents speak English as a second language. Council rolled out several initiatives to support the community including:

  • Neighbour2Neighbour in which residents were encouraged to reach out to their neighbours who may have felt the impacts of isolation more keenly.
  • The Community Hotline was set up for vulnerable or elderly residents who required additional assistance during lockdown.
  • Council managed to keep all staff employed and our Customer Service Centre open throughout the pandemic.
  • Special attention was given to providing communications relating to Covid-19 in the area’s main languages of English, Chinese and Korean.

Our nomination for the Sustainability for All field was for projects which were developed to make sustainable choices and environmentally friendly behaviour accessible, affordable and easy for a growing, diverse community, as well as for Council staff. This incorporated several initiatives including establishing relocatable recycling hubs, providing worm farms at the community garden, installing electric vehicle charging stations, translating environmental messaging into commonly spoken languages and hosting regular education, planting and recycling events.

The Community Development category recognises Council’s adaptation and development of existing technology to provide community services. Existing parcel locker technology was adapted to create Library Lockers providing contactless and 24/7 access to the Library collection throughout the Covid-19 lockdown. This is an Australia-first initiative and demonstrates Council’s ability to adapt and pivot to modern-day challenges.

Strathfield Mayor, Cr Antoine Doueihi said “Strathfield Council is honoured to be included in the Local Government Excellence Awards and thanks the organisation for recognising our commitment to servicing the Strathfield community.”

 

ENDS

For media enquiries, please contact:

Naomi Searle

Strathfield Council

9748 9992

naomi.searle@strathfield.nsw.gov.au

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