10 August 2005

Auckland City has rewarded unique and innovative efforts which promote safety and help to reduce crime and injury at the inaugural “Mayor of Auckland’s Community Safety Awards” ceremony last night.

The awards ceremony recognised businesses, groups and individuals who have taken steps to make the city a safer place to live, work and play.

To be eligible for the Auckland City awards, a person or group needed to have introduced a community safety project (focusing on crime reduction, injury prevention, road safety or a business security initiative) in the Auckland City Council area in the past two years.

Overall, 23 nominations were received for the awards. The four award winners were:

The Chinese New Settlers Services Trust for their road safety project “Yihu Ping An” which addressed the issues of driver licensing, child car restraints use, and cycle helmet use.

Mary Dobbyn for her project which addressed the issue of attacks on elderly people in Glen Innes. Mary ran an education programme with elderly people in the area, and lobbied banks to change their practices to make banking safer for their older customers.

Saras Nair and the Migrant Support Service Incorporated for their community based education initiative targeting seat belt use and child chair restraints by new refugees and immigrants travelling in motor vehicles.

Mate Aria for her long term passion and commitment to a broad range of injury prevention issues in the Otahuhu community.

The awards were judged by representatives from Auckland City's Public Safety and Community Order Committee and the New Zealand Police.

Committee chairperson Councillor Graeme Mulholland says the nominations were all excellent examples of how local initiatives often help to reduce crime and injury.

“It’s great to be able to acknowledge those who are working to limit crime and injury rates in Auckland. Their work makes the city a safer place for all of us,” Mr Mulholland says.

“It was a hard decision choosing the winners, however we felt that these four demonstrated innovative thinking and a willingness to go the extra mile.”

Mayor Dick Hubbard presented the four winners with a specially designed trophy at the awards ceremony.

“The winners are a positive example of what can be achieved to make our city a better place and we hope they’ll inspire others to adopt similar safety initiatives,” says Mr Hubbard.

The “Mayor of Auckland’s Community Safety Awards” coincided with the inaugural Safety NZ Week, promoted by the Accident Compensation Corporation to raise awareness of injury prevention and encourage involvement in community safety.

ENDS

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