Tamworth Regional Council was named the winner of the AR Bluett Memorial Award in October 2009 - acknowledging the Council as having shown the greatest relative progress over 2008/2009 of any of the 152 local government bodies in NSW.
Tamworth Regional Council won the Local Government Association section of the Bluett Award and Temora Shire won the shires section.
The submission and presentations to judges by Council was one of 15 from across NSW with the Bluett Trustees announcing that the most outstanding achievements included some major infrastructure works and civic construction projects and numerous program activities.
The Trustees noted that Council had been impressive in planning and implementing the local government amalgamations and had met the challenge in an impressive way of introducing ongoing community consultaton with the wider shire community. The Trustees also noted that underpinning the council's success was a very strong executive and management leadership team, with an excellent ethic towards corporate governance and administrative efficiency.
It is the second time a Tamworth council has won the Bluett Award. Tamworth City Council had won the prestigious title in 1982. This 2009 entry was the first nomination for the award since then.
The submission included a detailed and comprehensive outline of the activities Council undertook in 2008/2009. This virtual civic report card also included financial statements and the Quarterly Review report of March 2009. Those three documents are attached below: