Opinion
Mayoral Column — Community focus and leadership on show
Nine Council projects are finalists in the 2026 NSW Local Government Excellence Awards. The Mayor reflects on what that recognition means.
Improving lives and experiences for the growing Penrith community is at the core of what Council does. So I am thrilled to share that nine of our projects and initiatives are finalists in the 2026 NSW Local Government Excellence Awards.
The shortlist includes work that may sound technical — a pavement-renewal model that uses 30 percent recycled glass aggregate, a new tree-canopy mapping platform — alongside programmes that are unapologetically about people, like our youth leadership council and the cultural-heritage trail we launched with Dharug elders last spring.
What unites them is a refusal to treat 'local government' as a synonym for 'small ambition.' Penrith is now larger by population than Hobart. Our work needs to match that scale.
Awards will be announced on 14 August. Whatever the result, the recognition itself reflects the quality of work being done by Council staff every day.
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