Shaping Our Future - What's Happened And What's Next

A new and better way of making long term decisions for the communities within the Queenstown Lakes District is the driving force behind the Shaping Our Future process which is now well underway and involving more and more people. The project is community driven and aims to bring together residents, business, local government and other agencies.

September meetings, aiming to arrive at a unified vision that can provide an overarching goal that all forums can align with, are underway with Cardrona, Arrowtown, Glenorchy, Kingston and last night’s Hawea meetings all providing lively conversation as they feed into the process.

The meetings continue next week with Luggate on September 19, Makarora September 27, Queenstown September 28 and Wanaka September 29.

QLDC Mayor Vanessa van Uden has attended all forums and been delighted with the process.

“I am hugely grateful to the communities that have made the effort to be involved and I encourage others to do the same. On the whole I would say this process has been inspirational,” QLDC Mayor Vanessa van Uden said.

After the meetings are completed, a vision document will be drafted and shared for public feedback. Further meetings throughout November will refine the vision and identify the priorities for the next round of forums.

Simultaneously, the Events working party will develop its findings and present for consideration and an Economic Futures working party will be established.

Once the vision is completed and published, a programme for 2012 will be established with the goal of taking steps towards the vision.

By February 2012, Events and Economic Futures working parties will be in a position to action recommendations to agencies. At this time, supporters of the process will be invited to become partners who commit to helping steer the district towards the vision.

Shaping Our Future spokesman David Kennedy says the process is established and has been highly successful in other parts of the world.

“Getting the vision in place is a major step. The vision will provide direction, simplify, unite and inspire. We are very pleased at the progress so far with a variety of people from all sectors of the community taking part,” he said.

In the meantime, anyone new to the concept or wanting to find out more should go to any one of the meetings over the next 10 days or so (attendance is not limited to those living in the community hosting the event) or visit www.shapingourfuture.org.nz.