OVER 70pc of submissions received during public consultation for Mount Gambier City Council’s 2020-24 draft strategic plan have called on the local government body to declare a climate emergency.
Of the 26 responses received by council through its feedback channels, 19 called for council to become a leader in tackling climate change and declare a climate emergency through its strategic plan.
Council considered the responses at last week’s People and Place committee meeting following a public consultation period spanning over two months.
Despite the concerns, council chief executive Andrew Meddle said no changes had been made in the plan to reflect the submissions regarding climate change.
“No change is proposed given council’s resolution from earlier in the year where it resolved they wanted to transition to a more carbon neutral position,” he said.
“Having said that, we are doing work in this space and it might be something where we could potentially go back to that group and give an update on what we have been doing at Caroline and what we have been doing in green waste etcetera and show that we are interested in this, but do not agree with their sentiment at this time.”
Among the changes proposed following public feedback was highlighting a focus on protecting biodiversity for future generations through the creation of wildlife corridors.
Mr Meddle said creating more wildlife corridors would address one of the biggest biodiversity challenges – the “island effect”.
Wildlife corridors are used in urban areas to link reserves and important habitat to support the save movement of wildlife.
“These are not big green motorways that will be driven through the heart of the city, they are literally things like nature strips and other low cost solutions,” he said.
“It is simply a case of joining our different reserves with these corridors – whether it is through nature strips or tree-planting – to give wildlife a better chance.”
A slight amendment to the plan was also made to ensure regional rail trails were included in future cohesive infra-structure planning.
Council also agreed to work in partnership with representative groups, including the Mount Gambier Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Mount Gambier.
Speaking at last week’s committee meeting, Cr Ben Hood thanked the community for its feedback during the public consultation process.
“A big thank you to each and every one of those respondents, from our climate emergency people right through to the bike trails and the rail trails,” Cr Hood said.
“It is really good to see that level of community engagement.”
