This post contains an update on developing the plan, and a call for additional residents to join the steering group.
1. An update on developing the plan
MidCoast Council started the process for developing a local community plan for North Arm Cove and Carrington in late 2020.
Council’s idea of local community plans is "for people within a community to come together, have a conversation about what they want for the future and develop a plan for how they will get there."
These plans will be used by Council to help it understand and prioritise the needs and desires of the communities. Importantly, local community plans are owned by the communities that develop them, and Council’s role is to provide advice and support to ensure they are as effective as possible.
The North Arm Cove and Carrington local community plan (LCP) commenced with Council undertaking an online and postcard survey of North Arm Cove and Carrington residents in late 2020 to find out what residents liked about their community and their desires for its future. Council also sought nominations from community members for a steering group to guide development of the plan.
The plan will cover the North Arm Cove, Carrington and Tahlee area, but it will not include the issue of developing the non-urban land.
There were 210 submissions to these surveys. A summary of these submissions and the key themes that came out of them can be found in the attached document titled “LCP submissions first pass analysis”.
These submissions, together with the results of the community survey carried out by the NAC Community Centre Committee and NACRA in 2019, and the 2012 NAC project priorities survey, will be used to help prepare the draft North Arm Cove and Carrington plan. A copy of the 2019 community survey is also attached.
To give you an idea of what a local community plan looks like, I have attached the plan for Coomba (near Forster) which was prepared in May 2019.
2. The steering group – would you be interested in joining it and helping to develop the plan?
The steering group was formed by Council in late December 2020. It has met twice since then and has started its work by reviewing submissions to the surveys to identify common themes. It is aiming to develop a draft plan over the next few months, and then to consult with the North Arm Cove and Carrington communities on its contents.
The group is aiming to meet on a monthly basis at the Community Centre, with the next meeting to be held in mid-May.
Members of the steering group are Mike Thorpe, Bob Reid, Trevor Vandenberg and Tony Hann. Mike lives on Barromee Way, Bob and Tony live on Cove Boulevarde, and Trevor owns land in the non-urban area.
Since the steering group is all male and mostly lives on the eastern side of the Cove, we feel it needs to be more representative of our overall community, and we would like to see two more residents join it, preferably female, and from the Promontory Way and The Esplanade side of the Cove, or from Carrington/Tahlee.
So if you are interested in joining the steering group and helping to develop the plan, we would love to hear from you. You can contact us by email to nacctsg@gmail.com, or ring one of us for a chat (Mike 0438 667 705, Bob 0419 475 496, Tony 0402 990 999, Trevor 0432 634 897).
