2016-03-07 General Committee Agenda

GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                                  7 MARCH 2016


Corporate Plan Priority 3 – Community engagement and communication
We know that our community wants to be kept informed and we need to provide as much
information as possible via local media and to develop a better online presence. We will involve
the community in decision making on key issues affecting the future of Noosa.

Key achievements include:
 Council has undertaken a Queensland first for local government with a trial of a two
   Community Juries. The first Jury focused on the best option for minimising organic waste
   sent to landfill. The second Community Jury focused on options for future river management.
   The Council has committed to using the Community Jury as one if its community engagement
   tools in the future.
 Formal Council meetings have been held at Peregian Beach, Noosa Junction and Cooran. A
   number of community information night meetings were held at Kin Kin, Pomona, Tewantin
   and Sunshine Beach.
 The Council successfully engaged the community in the development of a significant number
   of policies, strategies and major projects. This included issues such as the Rufous Street
   Precinct project, the Social Strategy, Local Economic Plan, Local Laws review etc. The
   Noosa community actively participated in these types of consultation.
 An e-newsletter format was developed and published on a monthly basis. The Libraries,
   Galleries and Community Development teams have continued their excellent e-news
   publications which have a wide reach.
 Council’s social media presence has significantly improved. Council’s Facebook followers
   have increased to 3,400 and this medium has been particularly useful during bushfire, storm
   and flooding events. The Noosa Library Service and The J also have developed strong social
   media presences which assist in the promotion of their services.
 The Your Say Noosa portal on our website is fully operational. This portal provides an
   avenue to undertake community consultation on a range of issues and is becoming
   increasingly popular.


Corporate Plan Priority 4 – Focus on community assets
The Council’s focus will be on maintaining and renewing existing assets rather than building new
assets. In the short term, there will be a strong focus on undertaking condition assessment and
developing long term asset management plans.

Key achievements include:
 The rollout of the Capital Works Program took longer to establish than planned. There were
   initial delays in finalising detailed designs and this was probably not unexpected. By the time
   of the last report to Council, when taking into account completed capital works and
   committals, the Capital Works Program was 66% complete as at 29 February 2016. This
   included carryovers from 2015. We have caught up.
 Some of the significant Capital Works projects achieved included:
   o   reseals of Walter Hay Drive, parts of Gibson Road, David Low Way, Eenie Creek Road,
       Ben Lexcen Drive and Cooroy Noosa Road plus a range of other roads;
   o   completion of the Daintree Estate (Tewantin) and Rifle Street (Pomona) flood mitigation
       projects;
   o   rollout of new bus stop design and disability compliant bus shelters;




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