Residents are being asked to share their thoughts on the future shape of the city.
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The City of Ballarat is looking for as many people as possible to contribute their ideas and feedback on what the short and medium-term priorities should be.
Feedback will be used to inform the council plan, which is perhaps the most substantive document the councillors elected in October last year will put together.
It will set out all the projects deemed as a priority for their term and will run into the early stages of the next council after it is elected in spring 2024.
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Mayor Daniel Moloney said he hoped a wide range of people from a broad section of the community would take part in the process, adding that consultation had not always taken place at the right time previously.
"Right now, the timing makes sense and could have a genuine impact," he said. "It's really hard to do anything that's not in the council plan. If the seed of an idea is planted now, and it is well supported across the community, history says it tends to grow into a good project in two or three years' time."
Cr Moloney said historically sports and recreation clubs had been particularly successful in setting out business cases and having priorities adopted in council plans. It was a benchmark he said he hoped other sectors would emulate.
He also urged people to be in touch with ideas and feedback on areas that did not fall under a particularly activity group, such as footpaths and bikepaths for example. He said he hoped the plan would allow for a significant boost in infrastructure in older suburbs such as Sebastopol.
Not everybody would get what they wanted when they wanted, Cr Moloney said - but priorities could be set out clearly as a result of input received from the community.
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"While people might be cynical about consultation, hopefully there's some history there that shows the council plan process works."
The council plan is being formulated at the moment, and is due to go out for public consultation in the autumn before being adopted by council.
Several other long-term plans are also being prepared concurrently, including a Community Vision which will set out how people envisage Ballarat in 2031.
A financial plan is also being developed to ensure adequate resources are set aside for projects and strategies over the next decade.
A timeline published on the City of Ballarat website suggests the final version of the council plan will go before councillors on August 25 this year .
A series of "community conversations" will take place this month, including at venues in Brown Hill, Miners Rest, Delacombe, Eurekea, Alfredton, and Buninyong. This will be followed by what the City of Ballarat is terming "a small but representative group of residents" providing further input into the plans.
- For more information on the process, and how to give feedback, see: https://mysay.ballarat.vic.gov.au/ballarat-our-future/
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