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2007 News and Information

Richmond Wins International LivCom Awards

27 November 2007

The City of Richmond was presented two prestigious awards at the International Awards for Liveable Communities in London, UK. In this annual competition, referred to as the LivCom Awards, Richmond was named the overall winner for the Healthy Lifestyles award – beating all other finalists in all size categories. Richmond also earned second place in its size category for the Whole City Award and received Gold level status for the overall judging.

"This honour belongs to the entire community," said Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie, who led the  City's presentation team in London. "We are all tremendously proud to have our City, staff, residents and other partners recognized internationally for all the hard work that has gone into making Richmond one of the best places to live in the world."

The LivCom Awards were launched in 1997 and are endorsed by the United Nations Environment Programme. LivCom is the world’s only Awards Competition focusing on Best Practice regarding the management of the local environment. The objective of LivCom is to improve the quality of life of individual citizens through the creation of liveable communities.

Richmond was one of eight finalists for the Whole City Award in the category for communities with populations between 75,001 and 200,000. The other finalists were:

  1. Ipswich, Queensland, Australia
  2. Kakamigahara City, Japan
  3. Norwich, England
  4. Oshawa, Ontario, Canada
  5. Pecs, Hungary
  6. Portsmouth, Virginia, USA 
  7. Mancomunidad del Sureste de Gran Canaria, Spain

Ipswich was awarded first place and Oshawa came in third for the Whole City Award in this size category.

The finalists each made a 40-minute multimedia presentation to the judging panel, followed by answering questions from the judges.

While the Whole City Award is the overall award, awards were also given for each of the six criteria areas comprising the Whole City Award. Those criteria are:

  1. Community Sustainability
  2. Enhancement of the Landscape
  3. Heritage Management
  4. Planning for the Future
  5. Environmentally Sensitive Practises
  6. Healthy Lifestyles

The LivCom Awards were formally known as the International Nations In Bloom. Richmond previously won this competition in 2000.