Committee For Lorne: A word from the Chairman – May 10, 2018

A busy week on the local front with a combination of deadlines and discussions in which the Committee for Lorne (CFL) has been actively participating and making contributions. On Thursday last we hosted the executive teams of the Surf Coast Shire and Great Ocean Road Coast Committee for our “quarterly” collaboration and on the preceding days the deadline for submissions to the Great Ocean Road Task Force submission paper came to a close.

At our joint agency meeting last week the CfL, through project leaders Graham Brawn and Peter Spring, led a presentation on the update of our priority project – “Accommodating Lorne’s Future”. This project backed by extensive local research while working with students of Melbourne University and in consultation with the University of Western Sydney. Our project has looked to outline a statement of needs in accommodating Lorne’s future and present a series of suggested solutions to address these needs.

To achieve a number of our aspirations, we are going to need changes in planning guidelines at both local and state government levels and the support of both agencies to achieve the goals to which we aspire.

We heard from senior shire officers in their commentary of the 2018-19 draft budget and it was encouraging to hear that $160,000 has been allocated to progress the updating of Lorne Structure Plan 2003 – an outcome we had been lobbying for in recent years.

Great to see that the process is slowly becoming a reality, but of equal importance is the governance model that will be adopted to ensure that it is truly a collaborative approach just as was the process for the Stribling Reserve Master Plan.

Early discussion has hinted that the appointed consultants will be looking to establish a project control group with strong community representation which is a positive sign and paramount to ensure that we can capitalise upon the background work of the past five years.

You can view the draft budget at www.surfcoast.vic.gov.au/budget and submissions can be made up until the closure date of May 24. We will lobbying strongly to ensure the visions of the Lorne community are front and centre. It’s not an easy task when some of the senior officers involved in the process are, in our view, still familiarising themselves with the diversities of communities across the shire and in particular, the unique capacity of Lorne as we continually demonstrate community involvement and contributions quite different to the norm.

Committee for Lorne has completed our submission to the Great Ocean Road Task Force paper, shared the same with our government agencies, and without going into the specifics, we are united in the belief that until a single government agency has jurisdiction over the entire Great Ocean Road Region, we are not addressing the core issue of best practice management of the world famous Great Ocean Road.

Don’t forget to put in your diary our next scheduled luncheon for Friday, June 8 and remember you must RSVP to [email protected].

Ian Stewart
Chairman – Committee for Lorne