Have your say on draft Community Strategic Plan

Published on 28 March 2022

With more than 1600 ideas submitted during recent community consultation activities, Murray River Council has released its draft Community Strategic Plan (CSP) for public comment.

The Community Strategic Plan is Council’s ten-year plan that outlines the community’s long-term vision for the area and directs both short-term projects and a longer-term program of works to be delivered.

Council’s recent consultation activities offered an opportunity for the community to have their say on the types of services, projects and initiatives Council delivers to help inform the development of the plan.

“The CSP is a community document and should reflect our residents’ goals and aspirations for the council area as a place to live, work and play,” Mayor Chris Bilkey said.

“We’d like to thank everyone who recently attended our face-to-face meetings or submitted suggestions online; this engagement is a critical step in the process to ensure we are capturing what it is the community actually wants to see.”

“We now just want to make sure we didn’t miss anything and that the draft CSP matches, at a high level, what the community thinks.”

Recent engagement saw over 200 people attend community workshop sessions across the council, along with hundreds of suggestions submitted via Council’s Your Say platform or directly to staff.

Through the engagement, residents showed they valued the natural environment, accessible and liveable spaces and local people and places.

The community also said that improvements could be made to parks and open areas, infrastructure, focusing on statutory planning and building as well as more activities and events across the region.

“The CSP is a really important step in Council’s decision-making and planning process because it guides all the other plans we need to introduce; such as our yearly program of works,” Cr Bilkey said.

“We are now also working on our new 4-year Delivery Program, which translates all the goals listed in our Community Strategic Plan into actions.”

“This is then supported by our yearly Operational Plan to make sure we have the resources and support to deliver on it all.”

Council’s Delivery Program and Operational Plan will be available for viewing in the coming month, and it is within these documents that community members will begin to see their ideas and suggestions start to come to life.

Residents can now view the Draft Community Strategic Plan via Council’s Your Say Platform: yoursay.murrayriver.nsw.gov.au