ABOUT one hundred community members have discussed the goals for Warrnambool in the year 2040.
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They came together at the Emmanuel Centre on Saturday for a community forum to define what the future priorities should be. The event was kicked off with an address from keynote speaker Stephen Yarwood.
He is an urban futurist who consults internationally on future city trends and urban innovation.
Warrnambool City Council's community policy and planning manager Lisa McLeod said the Warrnambool 2040 plan would create a vision, and identify priorities and goals for the city.
It will guide the actions of the council, other organisations and be used to influence all levels of government.
The community members defined the priorities around four key areas – economy, people, environment and place.
Mrs McLeod said the forum was a “real success”.
“The energy on the day was fantastic,” she said.
“We have had some really good feedback since then as well.”
Mrs McLeod said nearly 100 people attended.
“People were really enthusiastic about talking to each other and really discussing the issues at hand,” she said. They were really inspired by Stephen Yarwood’s presentation. That really lifted the tone and lifted the thinking around planning not for today, but for the future. He was a very positive part of the program.”
Mrs McLeod said the panel members split across the four groups and spent over three-and-a-half hours discussing what the community responses had been to the W2040 survey.
“They came up with their own take on what the (goals and priorities) should be, and then they presented them back to the whole group.
“We had one group who presented in song and that was pretty impressive.
“The community really engaged in what they want for themselves. It was the first time in a long time our community as a whole has had a conversation like that.
“I was so impressed with the passion and enthusiasm for Warrnambool.”
The draft goals and priorities will be revealed at the end of the week, before a final public consultation session through the draft community plan will be released for input in early 2018.