Over 33,000 ideas and opinions from residents have been distilled into seven key themes Central Coast Council will use to shape the future of the coast in the region’s first ever Community Strategic Plan.

The Community Strategic Plan is designed to capture the community’s vision for the Coast and identify key social, economic, environmental priorities as well as long-term strategies for the Coast for the next 10 years.

Council Mayor Jane Smith said the plan is the overarching guide Council will use to determine how, where and what it spends its funds on to meet the wants and needs of our growing community.

“Council spent three months earlier this year talking with the community about what they love about the Central Coast and what could be done to make it even better,” Mayor Smith said.

“We went directly to the community and captured a record 33,000 separate ideas and opinions about what would make the Central Coast an even better place to live from face to face conversations, online surveys, commuter surveys and meetings with hard to reach communities.”

These ideas have been distilled into seven key themes -

• Natural environment
• Lifestyle and community
• Built environment
• Services and facilities
• Activities and entertainment
• Transport and movement around the local government area
• Economy

Connected Communities Group Leader, Julie Vaughan said the initial phase of developing the coast’s first Community Strategic Plan had been a great success.

“The community responded enthusiastically to the first phase of data collection and we would now like to invite individuals, community groups, business groups, State agencies and non-government agencies to join us at a Community Workshop to explore the themes in detail as part of the next phase of the project,” Ms Vaughan said.

“This next phase is crucial as we start to drill into the detail of how we, along with our stakeholders and other partners will deliver our community’s aspirations for the Coast over the next ten years.”

To register for a community workshop, visit yourvoiceourcoast.com and select the venue you wish to attend.

Community workshops dates and venues are below:

• Saturday 18 November – 1pm to 4pm at The Erina Centre
• Tuesday 21 November – 10am to 1pm at Smartwork Hub Gosford
• Tuesday 21 November –  6pm to 9pm at Umina Beach Surf Club
• Saturday 25 November –  9:30am to 12:30pm at The Entrance Community Centre
• Tuesday 28 November  – 10am to 1pm at Wyong Civic Centre
• Tuesday 28 November  -   6pm-9pm at Blue Haven Community Centre

Registration is required to attend a workshop. All workshops are free.

To read the Community Strategic Plan, Engagement Report – Phase One Report, go to yourvoiceourcoast.com.