Council is pounding the pavement to fine-tune its grand plan for the future before it’s set in stone early next year.
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The Community Strategic Plan (CSP) named Wagga View will shape every council decision between now and 2040, by laying out residents’ most pressing concerns and their hopes for the city’s growth.
Council has also attempted to marry the responses of more than 3000 residents with the state government’s agenda – including reducing childhood obesity and violent crime – in a bid to shore up funding.
Council’s corporate strategy coordinator Serena Wallace conceded the 60-page document is hard to come to grips with, but recognised the importance of earning residents’ seal of approval.
Ms Wallace and her team manned a booth in Marketplace with copies of the draft on Wednesday and Thursday, and will now venture out to get the opinions of residents in local villages including Tarcutta, Uranquinty and Collingullie.
“We’re conducting the final review to make sure we’ve heard the community right and talking to stakeholders like state departments to work out who will deliver what the community wants,” Ms Wallace said.
The state multiculturalism minister John Ajaka has lauded Wagga View for outlining how to make Wagga a “more inclusive place to live and work for everyone, including people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds”.
“My agency Multicultural NSW looks forward to working closely with council… to consult and provide strategic advice on the final version of the plan.”
The bold ideas include:
- More live entertainment
- Easier access to youth and domestic violence refuges
- Better sports fields
- A drug rehab
- Drug education in schools
- Wider roads to accommodate public transport
- More long-term parking
- More pedestrian crossings in the CBD
- More gynaecologists
- A crackdown on crime
- A truck stop with somewhere to swap trailers
- A splash park
- Support for neighbourhood watch groups