Christchurch's Council Receives Thumbs Up From ACC At Napier Conference

Christchurch City Council's leadership of the city's goal to become the "safest city in New Zealand" has been highly praised by ACC's CEO.

Dr Jan White was the keynote speaker at the annual Local Government Health and Safety Conference in Napier, September 16, 17 and 18.

In the 2006/2007 year ACC looked after more than 1.8 million claims from people injured in New Zealand, with 139,680 of those from Christchurch city.

Dr White told the conference that councils have a huge part to play in keeping New Zealanders safe as they work and play. That can also be economically beneficial because people – including tourists – are attracted to safe places.

ACC has established relationships with 40 councils, of which 24 have signed agreements with ACC, and planned health and safety activities in place.

She said the best way to improve safety and injury figures is to "share the goal" with other organisations like ACC, government, industry, the education sector, community groups, and iwi.

"Christchurch City Council has had an extremely positive relationship with the ACC Injury Prevention team for many years," Dr White said. "The Council has shown strong leadership in improving safety in the community and has worked alongside other organisations and community members to develop a city-wide safety strategy to become the safest city in New Zealand."

Part of that is achieving World Health Organisation "Safe Community" accreditation. Only six communities and cities in New Zealand have such a distinction.

In 2008 Christchurch will host the WHO International Safe Communities conference at which it aims become another designated safe city in New Zealand.

"The Christchurch City Council's leadership on safety, both for its workforce and for the wider community, has been excellent," said Lois McKay Christchurch's ACC branch manager.

"ACC and local government are natural partners to take leadership in creating safe communities. Not only are councils large employers, they have a wide sphere of influence in the communities and are responsible for many public spaces and facilities. We look forward to working with the Christchurch City Council on many more projects to come," Ms McKay said.

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