10 Jul 2018The 2018 Beautiful Awards submissions are open now and we want to know if your Town or City has what it takes to become a winner! This article revisits our Towns & Cities category winners from 2017, and the question is; how does your Town or City shape up to our previous winners … Most Beautiful Small Town Winner 2017 – Greytown The White Swan, Greytown Small but mighty. That’s how you could describe Greytown; when it comes to the community and it’s commitment to environmental initiative and beautification. The historic town is at the heart of a thriving rural community and, in 2017, demonstrated exactly why they are so deserving of the Most Beautiful Small Town title. Across waste minimization, the town’s focus for 2017 was increasing the recycling rates and getting local businesses on board with more eco-friendly packaging. They also acknowledged a stinky problem with dog waste (80% of councils reporting that this is an increasing problem). Greytown ran a major awareness campaign across the town and saw the problem improve considerably. The beautification of the town was largely focused around tree planting. There was an enormous effort put in to fundraising and, the community was able to raise approx. $40,000 to go toward tree planting and sculpting in public spaces. They were also able to paint and restore a series of historic Greytown buildings, such as; Emporos – BNZ Bank building – c1876 and Oddfellows Hall – c1926. Most Beautiful Large Town Winner 2017 – Feilding Feilding’s Clock Tower With its iconic clock tower, stunningly beautiful annual colour, litter free streets and inviting open spaces; it’s no wonder Feilding has been crowned New Zealand’s most Beautiful Large Town 16 times since 1988! The Keep Feilding beautiful team is the driving force behind the promotion of their civic pride, which encourages the community to beautify their surroundings. It’s a real team effort; with the New Zealand Police, neighbourhood support, service clubs, schools, the general public and many more; contributing towards the towns achievements in environmental initiatives and community beautification. Year on year, they have reduced litter counts, by involving more volunteers at more sites. In 2017, they produced over 200 kg’s of fresh produce from the community gardens and, planted a staggering 120,000 native plants throughout the town. They implemented too many community beautification projects to count, focusing on parks and open spaces; where they reduced vandalism, refurbished the CBD’s street furniture and repainted Feilding’s Heritage Buildings (to name a few). Feilding continues to demonstrate community pride, leadership in the environmental space; and is the type of town that any community, right throughout New Zealand, can learn from and aspire to be. Most Beautiful City – Masterton Masterton, New Zealand Masterton is a place that people are proud to live in. The My Masterton Facebook page, focuses on all that is good about Masterton and is thriving with community engagement. In 2017, the community implemented some amazing new initiatives; rain art in the streets, bilingual signage in public facilities and planting on verges, traffic islands and berms. A large focus for Masterton in 2017, and something they are continuously working towards is, improving air quality. They have promoted clean burning over the winter months and installed fast charging stations for electric cars. In recent years, Masterton has undergone a remarkable transformation and, in the 12 months leading into their award submission for 2017, the community has taken big strides forward in the beautification of the city. Major projects, such as the development of First Street into a beautiful boutique shopping village, complete with a village green; demonstrates a typical, community-led, council supported model that has been adopted by the city. So, you think your town or city has what it takes to be crowned champion in 2018? Can you eclipse the other wonderful towns and cities that enter? Make sure you get your submission in before August 1. This year, we are awarding a mural, by renowned stencil artist, Flox, to one of our outstanding towns or city that are crowned champion in their category. Don’t miss out on this unique and amazing opportunity! To check out the criteria and enter your town or city, head to our submission page. The Beautiful Awards Gala Dinner is taking place on Friday 26 October at the Maritime Museum, in Auckland. To purchase tickets, click here. — Ends — Share this page
