Watch: Community Strategic Plan at a crossroads — important public engagement opportunity

Council will hold an important public consultation session at Armidale on Tuesday, 17 May 2022
at the NOVA UNE Smart Region Incubator (Old Armidale Library), 122 Faulkner Street, Armidale between 6pm – 7:30pm.

Armidale Regional Council is at a crossroads and important decisions need to be made. Council’s annual Integrated Planning and Reporting (IP&R) documents including the proposed Community Plan 2022-2032, Delivery Program 2022-2026, proposed 2022-23 Budget, Fees and Charges and Resourcing Strategy are now on Public Exhibition for community feedback closing on 8^th of June.

See council website details or Register your interest to the event here – Register now.  Places are limited so it is important to register now.

ARC held an extraordinary meeting last Tuesday and we recommend you take the time to view it here. It is only 20 mins long, and if you are short of time, please start listening/watching at 7mins. This will give you an overview of what ARC is proposing. This includes an at least 50% rate rise over the next three years.

“We all need to engage in this important conversation about our future. Like no other time in the Armidale region’s history, these documents carry significant weight for the future and present a fork in the road to either grow our way out of our current trajectory or manage the inevitable decline of the council and our region.”  (Your Say Armidale, ARC)

Please visit Council’s Strategic Directions – Integrated Planning and Reporting to access the documents, seek further information or to make a submission.

To do this, we all need to look closely at these documents and do our best to attend one of the events – either in Guyra or in Armidale.

On an important note, it is heartening to see that Council has stood by its undertaking to put action on climate change front and centre (see page 3 of the Draft Delivery Program 2022-2026) and has made a statement to this effect in this document. The extent to which, and how this will be enacted in the Delivery Program however, has yet to be determined and public support of this is important to be maintained during this public exhibition and submission process.

That the Climate Emergency Declaration and proposal for actions has finally appeared in print in a Council document is a direct response to persistent input from community members seeking effective climate action by our local government. It follows on from the 2019 Climate Emergency Declaration by Council and the publication of the ARC Framework For Climate Action prepared by the Climate Emergency Working Group of Councils Environmental Sustainability Advisory Committee.

The four-year Delivery Program lists initiatives that the Council will undertake during its elected term – its commitment to the community – and the 2022-23 budget document shows how council plans to budget for the first year of the term of the current councillors. It is now up to us as a community to pay attention to these documents and make informed comment as to whether what is proposed is a true reflection of what is needed / what is possible.  Issues around water security and the sustainability of proposed water use as well as constructive engagement with the development of the New England Renewable Energy Zone – community benefit, ensuring that natural habitat is not destructed and embedding decommissioning of infrastructure into planning – come to the fore.

The plan identifies six pillars:

• Thriving
• Connected
• Future
• Liveable
• Enriched and
• Strong region.

Example of what council intends in the context of climate and environment can be found in the “Future Region” pillar.Goal 1 is for a flourishing natural environment that is protected and enhanced and includes the strategies:

• Promote and support biodiversity protection and management
• Protect and enhance our waterways, catchments and creeklands and
• Foster collaborations that improve understanding and action to protect our natural environment.

Goal 2: A clean, green and responsible region lists strategies to:

• Proactively adapt to and mitigate the local impacts of climate change
• Promote and increase use of renewable resources and alternative energy sources
• Ensure the community is provided with safe and accessible water that is sustainably managed now and into the future
• Prepare, prevent and manage natural disasters

Sustainable Living Armidale and Climate Action Armidale intends to provide opportunities for interested people to be better informed to have meaningful input into Councils strategic direction documents. Stay tuned for follow up posts and in the meantime it is really important to register now for Tuesday 17^th and have a read of the Community Plan and Delivery Program documents. Whatever the results at the Federal election this coming weekend this is your opportunity for very important LOCAL engagement.