Palerang Council Draft Community Strategic Plan

Palerang Council has released its draft 20-year community strategic plan (CSP).

The plan reflects the more than 7,000 comments received from community members at the 10 forums conducted throughout Palerang earlier this year. Councillors and staff were very encouraged by the level of participation in these forums and the ideas that flowed from them.

Palerang's General Manager, Peter Bascomb, said, "As mentioned at the forums, our goal was to reflect the spirit of all the conversations - there was no way we could capture the precise wording of all 7,000 comments received!

"We decided to keep this 20-year plan brief and easy to read. It is after all an over-arching document describing broad objectives for the
next 20 years," Mr Bascomb added.

Council will be holding two more public forums, the first on Monday, 12 December in Bungendore, and the second on Tuesday, 13 December 2011, in Braidwood. These will take the form of a panel session with staff and Councillors available to answer questions from the floor. The forums will again be facilitated by Martin Bass from the University of Technology, Sydney.

"Councillors, staff and I are looking forward to this next stage in the development of the community strategic plan," said Mr Bascomb.

Once the CSP is formally adopted, Councillors and staff will develop a number of supporting documents that really breathe life into the plan. These are:

• 4-year Delivery Plan
• Yearly Operational Plan
• Workforce Plan
• Asset Management Plans
• Financial Management Plan

It is these documents that will have specific delivery timetables and key performance indicators. Staff have been working on the Asset Management Plans, and the first, for roads and drainage, was published early in 2011.

The Delivery Plan will be linked to the 4-year local government election cycle, and will be reviewed following the next general elections scheduled for September 2012.

The Operational Plan is a 12-month plan, expanding the Delivery Plan for the current financial year. The first Operational Plan, for the 2012-2013 financial year, will be developed in conjunction with the
Delivery Plan. The Operational Plan is developed each year in a manner similar to the current yearly management plan and budget.

The Financial Management Plan will reflect Council's long-term strategy to ensure that it has sufficient funds to maintain and develop Council's assets and services.

The draft Community Strategic Plan (PDF - 168.1KB) can be downloaded from Palerang Council's website at www.palerang.nsw.gov.au.