Group’s plan for town complete

AFTER more than a year of consultation and development the Inverleigh Progress Association community plan for the township has been finalised.

The document outlines the needs of Inverleigh residents and surrounds for the next five years.

Hilary Hamilton, Inverleigh Progress Association president said community input has been essential to the plan’s development.

“The main thing for a community is to establish that everyone’s on the same page and we’re all trying to achieve a community-based goal,” she said.

“A good example is the youth precinct that came from the ground up from our young people. That’s certainly a project which will be a wonderful addition for us.

“We’ve looked at this together and certainly hope we’ll be able to deliver on some of these projects depending on what funding comes up.”

The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ 2021 census showed Inverleigh’s population had increased to more than 1700 people compared to nearly 1500 in 2016.

General concerns highlighted in the plan focus on property subdivision and housing development and the lack of childcare and youth facilities.

Some of the projects listed include maintaining the Leigh River pedestrian bridge, restoration of the train station and upgrades to facilities like the RSL building and public hall.

IPA members are seeking to secure seed funding from Golden Plains Shire for the plan’s smaller-scale projects.

Ms Hamilton said the group is aiming to complete as many of the listed projects as possible.

“You can’t be too confident in reaching the goal of doing them all but certainly we’d like to see the achievable, small projects which I’m sure will get achieved at that time,” she said.

“So, it’s about being ready to roll with a project once that happens.

“You can only have the ideas and hope volunteers will step up when the time comes or when there’s funding available.”