Our long-term plan – have we got it right?
Christchurch City Council is kicking off its major public consultation for this three-year term. The result will be a new long-term community plan – we call it the Our Community Plan Christchurch Otautahi – which will set out the City Council’s goals and plans for the years from July 1, 2006.
To put that plan together, the Council is managing a two-stage process. First, it is leading a communitywide effort to establish top-level goals called Community Outcomes. Second, the Council looks at what part it can and should play in achieving those goals and, in a further round of consultation, asks the community if it agrees.
A draft document, called Let’s Talk it Through, will be available from next week at all Council service centres and libraries. The Council wants to hears people’s opinions. You have until Friday, 10 June to provide feedback on this.
“Community Outcomes belong to the city of Christchurch, not just the Council,” says Alan Bywater, who leads the Council’s research and policy effort. “We’re leading this because that’s part of our role but these need to belong to the community.
“We’ve developed some draft Outcomes based on research and consultation with interest groups and agencies in the city – organisations like Age Concern, sport and recreation groups and worked with the Chamber of Commerce to contact business owners and managers.”
As an example, the first Community Outcome being proposed is that Christchurch should be A City of Inclusive and Diverse Communities.
“From the work we’ve done so far we’ve developed nine draft Community Outcomes,” Mr Bywater says. “In the Let’s Talk it Through booklet, they’re paired with a series of pointers about what needs to be done to achieve that particular Community Outcome. They’re the pointers to what the community believes are its most important challenges in the coming years.”
Again, using the Inclusive and Diverse Communities outcome, the draft priorities include ensuring that, “older people remain valued participating members of the community” and “provide support to families/whanau to ensure the wellbeing of our children and young people”.
“We’d also like to hear what people think of the range of priorities we’ve identified,” Mr Bywater says.
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