Community call to help shape plan

CITY of Ballarat staff are asking residents to offer their input into the municipality’s guiding document for the next five years.

Feedback is being sought to assist with the upcoming creation of the Council Plan 2025-2029, which will steer the direction of the next council term.

“The Council Plan is an extremely important strategic document that will help direct our next four years and we truly value input from the community,” said CEO Evan King.

“We are committed to delivering a better Ballarat and we encourage community members to help contribute to one of the key tools that will help us achieve that.”

Community consultation was opened on Thursday last week, with the eventual document to inform the progress of the municipality’s Community Vision 2021-2031.

Those wishing to get involved can complete an up-to-five-minute survey via the City of Ballarat’s MySay page, with completing participants able to go in the draw for a $250 food or fuel voucher.

Questions will centre around community wellbeing, the growth of the region, environment, budgeting, and advocacy.

Further consultation, including pop-up sessions to be held throughout Ballarat, will also be held over the next few months, with details to emerge on the MySay page.

Adding to that, people can also put up their hand to be part of a 45-person community panel to help steer the plan’s development, who will meet three times in February.

It’s also hoped panel members will also be gathered out of 10,000 local addresses, selected at random, with each household receiving an invite to fill out an expression of interest form.

Development of the Council Plan 2025-2029 is set to be a high priority for the new council once the group is sworn in November.

A draft of the document is expected to be open for public exhibition in April prior to adoption.