At Tuesday night’s full council meeting councillors voted to postpone the district’s community awards until next year and hold the awards biennially.
The awards have been held since 2007.
A report by communications/marketing manager Sonia Gerken and community strategy manager Anne Pullar said it was often a challenge to find enough nominees for the award categories, and also stretched council resources to put the event on.
If the awards were biennial it could continue as the "signature event" for the council.
"It will also ensure the event generates a a high level of anticipation in the community."
Mayor Tracy Hicks said he was very aware of how important the community awards were.
"I do acknowledge some of the challenges around getting numbers of nominees on a regular basis on a 12-monthly cycle so I think it’s good we pause and take a breath to consider other ways of doing this," Mr Hicks said.
When the awards first started the council was not as involved in many events as it was now, he said.
Cr Bronwyn Reid said she was happy with the event being run biennially.
"It does keep that standard high."
Councillors also agreed to the drawing up of a draft freedom camping bylaw.
