Community Planning at Surf Coast Shire

The Surf Coast Shire is currently implementing the first year of its Community Engagement Framework across five identified rural and coastal towns. The Community Engagement Framework will culminate in a Local Area Plan for each town.

The Local Area Planning process has grown from the community engagement strategy 'Your Visions' . 'Your Visions' demonstrated the Shire's commitment to provide opportunities for the full diversity of Surf Coast communities to articulate their aspirations, needs and priorities.

 Local Area Plans will be developed in Deans Marsh, Winchelsea, Moriac, Anglesea and Aireys Inlet / Fairhaven. Residents from these areas will be engaged in developing Local Area Plans so that they will have a more meaningful role in Council's planning and prioritisation process.

The Shire sees its role in community strengthening as that of facilitator and 'starter' of a process whereby local community members take greater responsibility and ownership of planning and prioritisation in their local areas. This 'catalytic role' is both philosophical and practical. Philosophically, the Shire wants to respond to the desire of citizens for greater involvement. It is predicted that the involvement of citizens will lead to communities that are more resilient, more connected, have a greater sense of well being, and where residents feel a greater sense of community. Practically, the Shire is limited both by budget and staffing in what it can achieve for communities and believes that by promoting the capacity of communities to self direct their development priorities, the end results will be far greater than anything Local Government could possibly achieve directly. Supporting communities 'to invest in themselves', is seen as sustainable and lasting.