Lorne community to take charge

THE people of Lorne will be put in charge of drawing up the new masterplan for Stribling Reserve.
Under the “community-led partnership” model, the project group, chaired by a Committee for Lorne representative and containing other members of the town’s community, would provide its recommendations to the council to guide its The Lorne community, through the Committee for Lorne and Stribling Reserve Committee of management, will run the community engagement process and have a major role in delivering the masterplan.
Surf Coast Shire has allocated $50,000 to creating the new masterplan and will provide project management support.
Shire mayor Rose Hodge said the process would trial a new way of planning the future of major recreation reserves.
“This process differs from more traditional approaches to planning for reserves in that the local community is taking a more prominent role, particularly in local engagement and in making recommendations to council.
“This is an example where, rather than taking the lead on projects like this, council will seek to facilitate and support community leadership.
“The Stribling Reserve Committee of Management and the Committee for Lorne in particular have expressed a strong interest in planning for the reserve’s future and council looks forward to supporting them in this process.”
Committee for Lorne president Ian Stewart said community leadership of the planning process presented an opportunity to better access local skills, views and expertise.
“To have a planning process that’s driven from the community upwards is a refreshing change from what we’ve seen in the last decade and the initiative of people like Peter Spring on the Stribling Reserve Committee of Management has the potential to introduce a new best practice for our community.
“We have so many passionate volunteers in Lorne, permanent and non-permanent residents. People are more than happy to roll their sleeves up and that bodes well for a community-led approach to planning the future of facilities and places like Stribling Reserve.”
Preliminary work has started on the masterplan, which will be finalised over 2016/17.