Melanie Riley
THE City of Mount Gambier has put forward a proposal to establish a community panel to collaborate with Council in shaping Mount Gambier 2035.
Council is currently in phase 1, ‘Exploring our Community Vision’ of their strategic plan 2020 – 2024, which has included feedback from the community through information sessions at various community events and ‘have your say’ cards distributed to households.
Through their online community engagement platform ‘Have Your Say Mount Gambier,’ council have asked ‘what are the opportunities to embrace or challenges to overcome as a community?’ and members can submit feedback and ideas to the council.
Phase 2 ‘’Exploring the key themes’ will be implemented in early 2024 which will include analysis of community feedback in more depth.
The community panel will be developed as part of phase 3, ‘Shaping Mount Gambier 2035’ will be implemented from March through to April 2024.
City of Mount Gambier mayor Lynette Martin said it is an exciting time and “we all look forward to the outcomes.”
The proposed panel will be composed of 40-50 randomly selected community members who will play a part in building the future of the city over the next 10 years.
It will be through the ‘Have Your Say Mount Gambier’ platform that community members will be able to register their interest to join the community panel.
Members must be 16 years of age and be living, working or studying in Mount Gambier or are a business owner or rate payer in Mount Gambier.
Questions including age, gender, ancestry and whether or a person identifies as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander or as a person living with a disability will be included in the registration.
City of Mount Gambier chief executive officer Sarah Philpott said the selection process will include matching participants against the criteria in order that the sample is “representative of the community.”
More details about the community panel and process will be updated on the Mount Gambier 2035 Have Your Say page with details actively promoted across the community.
Registrations will be open until the end of January/early February, with the selection process to follow.
