Council gets positive response to draft plan from community

Councillors were very pleased with the response from the public to the draft ten year plan ‘Towards 2019’ with nearly 300 submissions received and a high number of positive feedback on some of the proposed activities.

Mayor Rick Cooper said council really appreciated everyone who took the time to have a chat during the roving consultation and especially those that put pen to paper and made a submission. “Thanks to everyone who took the time to provide their feedback – it really shows that we have a community that cares about the future of this district,” he said.

Council started working on the ten year plan ‘Towards 2019’ in early 2008 by looking at the current state of the district, considering the challenges that the community faces and identifying the real issues and priorities. Council then started asking for people’s ‘dreams and aspirations’ for the future of the district and the ‘Our Neighbourhood, Our Future’ Expo was held in August 2008 for the public to interact with Councillors and to find out what is underway and what is being proposed.

The draft plan was then put together and went out for public consultation at the end of December 2008 with a summary going out to every household. Roving consultation began in mid January with Councillors and officers getting out and about around the district to various events to chat about the draft plan and encourage people to make submissions.

The three hot topics for discussion included the future development of the Taupo Town Centre, the pedestrian footbridge across the Waikato River, the future of the Taupo Tennis Courts and requests for community support.

The next steps in the process will involve Councillors hearing submitters from the 23 March, with a meeting in April to decide what changes will be made to the draft plan based on the submissions received. The final plan will be adopted in June 2009.