MidCoast Council budget and operation plan on public exhibition until June 29

As well, developing the environmental plan and development control plan and developing cultural and Aboriginal action plans feature in council's annual operations plan and budget, currently on public exhibition until June 29.

"The operational plan sets out the projects, tasks and activities that we will undertake during the next year, and the draft budget outlines the funds that will be provided to achieve those objectives," council's general manager Adrian Panuccio said.

As council aims to support community groups to "maximise sustainable use of community halls", it proposes to engage dedicated halls officers in the coming year.

In its endeavour to empower towns and villages to retain and celebrate their unique identity, council will develop local community plans for towns and villages over the next three years.

Under the heading of technology and innovation, council plans to investigate the use of electronic parking sensors within the Taree CBD and provide additional parking sensors with the Forster CBD. It also plans to provide free internet access, including wifi, across all staffed libraries and launch a library app.

As part of council's focus on reducing the amount of waste that goes to landfill, in the short term it will build a waste transfer station at Stroud and close the Stroud landfill, and investigate the introduction of FOGO (food organics and garden organics) in the waste collection contract.

As a means of optimising council's land portfolio, the focus will be on selling the remaining lots at Taree Aviation Park by appointing sales and managing agents and consulting with other lot owners. Council will look at disposal of land at Chapman's Road, Tuncurry and the council offices at Breese Parade, Forster.

In the short term council will review and implement an urban street tree planting schedule for all urban centres as well as incorporating streetscape improvements in the construction of Queen Street, Gloucester and Farquhar Street, Wingham and incorporating streetscape improvements into the design for Isabella Street, Wingham.

"These projects, and a vast number of others, will be our focus as we work to deliver our mission of delivering benefits to our community in ways that add value and build trust," Mr Panuccio said.

The objectives are selected to progress the four year Delivery Program, which council and community together have developed. The delivery program, in turn, works toward achieving the community's overall strategic plan "MidCoast 2030: Shared Vision, Shared Responsibility".

"This strategic approach allows us to engage with community at each step, which is really important to ensure we continue to deliver on community priorities," Mr Panuccio said.

"Importantly, the plan also indicates how we will measure our performance to show we are delivering on our commitments to our community. We report on our progress against this program every six months to ensure we are on track, and this information is publicly available for our community so they can be informed on our performance."

To read the 2020-2021 draft operational plan and budget, and to provide your feedback, please visit www.midcoast.nsw.gov.au/haveyoursay before the public exhibition period closes on June 29 2020.

View the community's strategic plan "MidCoast 2030: Shared Vision, Shared Responsibility" and the current delivery program, along with past operational plans at www.midcoast.nsw.gov.au/futureplans.

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