COMMUNITY STRATEGIC PLAN
Community Strategic Plan
The Community Strategic Plan has now been endorsed at Council’s ordinary meeting on 26 April 2022. Council is committed to deliver on the priorities and aspirations for the future of the Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council local government area. Again, we thank our community for their participation in the creation of the Community Strategic Plan 2022-32.
Community Strategic Plan 2022-32
Background to Creating the Plan
Engagement
The success of creating the Community Strategic Plan is dependent on a collective approach between the members of our community and our Council. The plan can only reflect the community’s aspirations for the future with our community’s direct participation and input.
Council acknowledges its role in facilitating the development of the Community Strategic Plan, and remains committed to ensuring the community is informed, encouraged, enabled and welcomed to participate in the development and implementation of the plan.
The Community Strategic Plan has been developed through a process of intensive community engagement. We met with our community to understand their needs and aspirations, and to identify the priorities for the future.
The CSP Community Engagement phase included communications and marketing activities, Council pop-up stands, facilitated stakeholder workshops and focus groups, direct mail-outs and an online community survey that reached over 7,866 people across the region.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT:
• 333 online surveys were completed
• 502 conversations at community pop-up stands
• 60 people attended facilitated stakeholder group discussions
• 25 local businesses were directly engaged
• 107 people received the Council internal email
• 8 local schools were engaged with a direct mail
• 60 emails were sent directly engaging with community groups and Section 355 committees
• 971 recipients of the postcard survey mail out
OUR PLAN FOR THE FUTURE:
The Cootamundra-Gundagai Community Strategic Plan is a call to action which reflects the aspirations and visions for the future.
Our community strategic plan is made up of:
• Five key focus areas that identify where we want to be
• Eighteen objectives we want to achieve over the next 10 years
• Strategies that help us achieve our objectives
• Partners we can work with to achieve our objectives
• Performance Measures to track and monitor our progress
WHAT OUR COMMUNITY IDENTIFIED:
Our community has identified the need for further investment and encouraging new businesses to start up in the region as key for our future sustainability and economic resilience. We need to encourage and incentivise a diversity of investment to promote economic growth in the development of new sectors, as well as the growth and expansion of existing businesses.
By fostering a culture of innovation, being open to new ideas and promoting entrepreneurship we can promote ourselves as being “open for business”. Large-scale infrastructure investments can be a catalyst for positive change, such as the ARTC Inland Rail project, a locally based abattoir, and the National Broadband Network (NBN) rollout providing opportunities for the future, making it easier for business to do business and increasing our connectedness with our regional and city counterparts. Our challenge, then, is to be prepared to capture opportunities as they arise.
