1 August 2016

Residents of the Murchison region are being asked to provide their views on a draft community plan for four North-West Council areas for the next 25 years.

More than 1900 people took part in consultation around the Sustainable Murchison Community Plan, which is a joint initiative of the Burnie, Circular Head, King Island, Waratah-Wynyard and West Coast Councils.

The plan has been developed to help provide a unified vision for the Murchison region over the next 25 years and will be used by the Circular Head, King Island, Waratah-Wynyard and West Councils to complement or drive their Strategic Plans.

The plan will strongly integrate and link with Burnie City Council’s Making Burnie 2030 Community Plan and provides linkages with the remaining Cradle Coast Councils. It also builds on the West Coast Community Plan 2025, linking it to broader Murchison region priorities.

Community engagement for the development of the plan had input from more than 1900 people and identified a community vision, which is built on nine future direction themes, each of which has several strategic objectives.

 

The themes are:

The Councils invited tenders for the project in September last year, with welcome funding support from the State Government.

The plan includes a detailed population and demographic analysis, population forecasts and projections, a social needs assessment, an economic resource analysis, transport analysis and forecasts, spatial assessment of land and water values, a land use suitability analysis and study of land use forecast requirements.

Circular Head Mayor Daryl Quilliam thanked residents across the four Council areas for their input and hoped they would take the time to view the draft plan.

“This is an important document for the Murchison region as it will provide a blueprint for how we operate now and into the future,” Mayor Quilliam said.

King Island Mayor Duncan McFie said it was particularly pleasing that a significant number of young people had taken part in helping to create the plan.

“Considering this will guide the Murchison region over the next 25 years it was essential that we gave young people a voice as part of this plan,” Mayor McFie said.

Waratah-Wynyard Mayor Robby Walsh said he was confident the hard work behind the plan would yield results.

“From the beginning this plan has always been about creating actual projects that we can start moving on straight away,” Mayor Walsh said.

West Coast Mayor Phil Vickers said the West Coast Community Plan 2025 had started already started benefitting the community.

“The Council looks forward to being able to now also focus on the Murchison region,” Mayor Vickers said.

Burnie Mayor Anita Dow said Burnie City Council was pleased to be involved and looked forward to seeing the plan in action.

Options to get involved include:

  1. View and comment on the draft plan and supporting documents via www.placespeak.com/murchison2040
  2. View the draft plan and supporting documents and fill in a submission form at any of the participating Councils.
  3. Make a comment on any of the following Council Facebook pages www.facebook.com/WaratahWynyardwww.facebook.com/CircularHeadCouncil
    www.facebook.com/westcoastcouncil
  4. Use the #murchison2040 hashtag on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram
  5. Come to a community/stakeholder workshop to discuss the project. Dates and locations will be available on the project website once finalised.
  6. Send us your thoughts in writing, as a submission - Email your comments to any of the participating Councils or post your comments to the Sustainable Murchison Community Plan, PO Box 168, Wynyard, Tasmania, 7325.

Comments can be made until 5pm on Friday 26 August 2016.

For more information on the project visit the project website at www.placespeak.com/murchison2040 or please contact Waratah-Wynyard Council on 6443 8333 to make an appointment.