Community Plan 2024-2044

Endorsed Community Plan 2044 

Following the extensive and constructive community engagement that was undertaken, we reviewed the Draft community Plan 2044. This involved reviewing all the feedback from that was collated from every single comment, point or statement made during the whole engagement period and was prepared on the Summary of Community Participation and Proposed Amendments (SCPPA) table. Following a detailed and comprehensive review of all comments, submissions and feedback provided we determined that there was a lot of work to be done to meet the needs and requests of our community and what they would like to see in the plan. There was a large number of edits, retractions and additions made to the Community Plan before we considered it a final plan ready to present to Council.

This final document was presented to our elected Council Members for endorsement and was successfully endorsed on Tuesday 8 October 2024.

We would like to thank you all for your involvement during this process, and you can now review the final endorsed version of our Community Plan 2044 on this page. 

Community Engagement Summary:

Thank you to everyone who made time be review and provide feedback on the draft Community Plan over the past six weeks (20th May - 22nd July 2024). During the community engagement period we met with local residents at three drop-in sessions in Mount Barker, Nairne and Macclesfield, we engaged with thousands of people on social media, had more the 500 people visit this project webpage, and we received around 50 online survey responses and a further 15 more detailed email submissions both from individuals and community groups across the District.

The process now ahead of us is to document and address all of the feedback received, and as you might imagine this is a detailed and important process. Our Council follows the internationally accepted standard for community engagement from the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2). This means that when community engagement is undertaken on a project such as this, one of the key things that happens following the engagement period is that we prepare a Summary of Community Participation and Proposed Amendments (SCPPA) table. This table catalogs, documents and captures every single comment, point or statement made during the whole of the engagement period. This includes points made in emails submissions received, notes taken during face to face engagements, comments left on the discussion board and from completed survey responses. The SCPPA table has three columns, the first lists and numbers the comment or point made, the second column includes Council's response to the comment and the third column documents how the draft plan will respond to the comments made. The purpose of this table is to ensure that every comment is captured and addressed and that the process of reviewing and addressing all feedback received is a clear and transparent one.

Following this, the draft Community Plan document will be reviewed and amended to reflect the feedback provided by our community. The revised version of the Community Plan document along with the SCPPA table which details all of the feedback received will then be made available to the community and presented to our elected Council Members for endorsement.

As you might appreciate this is not a quick or simple process and will take a number of weeks to get right. It is envisaged that the consultation summary SCPPA table and revised Community Plan will be presented to Council for endorsement in September 2024 with both documents made available to the community in the weeks leading up to this.

In the meantime, if you have any questions about this process, or the timing for completing revised plan, please feel free to contact us using the contact details on this page.

Original Project Information:

The Mount Barker District is home to a thriving and diverse community, consisting of small rural townships, popular tourism destinations and growing urban areas. Set in the unique rural landscape of the Adelaide Hills, there remains an important challenge to responsibly manage the growth of our community and the local economy, with the protection of our important natural resources and the surrounding rural environment.

With our District now one of South Australia's fastest growing regions and population growth sustained at 3% p.a. we will face new challenges as our Community grows and our population increase to 60,000 people over the next two decades.

To better guide the development of our community and the livability of urban environments, the Mount Barker District Council is updating its strategic plan for the District. The Mount Baker Community Plan 2024-2044 will help to guide the future growth of our Community by setting objectives across five key areas:

• Environment
• People
• Place
• Economy
• Leadership

The objects proposed across the five pillars of the draft Plan will help to deliver our vision for the District to be the most livable region in South Australia.

As a starting point, the new objectives proposed in the draft Plan have been developed using feedback previously provided by the Community on the current Community Plan, results from the 2023 MARYKT scorecard survey and initial feedback from elected Council Members.

We Need Your Feedback and Input

For community plans, such as this, to truly represent the views of our Community, it is really important that we receive as much input and feedback from our Community as possible. Council staff are seeking to engage with you, our Community, over the next six weeks from 20 May - 2 July 2024 to gather as much feedback as possible.

During this six-week period you can let us know your thoughts and ideas for the Plan by attending one of our drop-in sessions, completing the online survey, leaving a comment or question on our message board or by calling or emailing us with your ideas.

Details of how to be involved:

• Completing feedback here
• Join the discussion below by leaving a comment on our message board
• Email communityplan@mountbarker.sa.gov.au
• Attend a ‘drop in’ session. There will be one held in each Ward from 3pm-6pm on the following days and locations:
  • Wednesday 5 June 2024 at the Mount Barker Shopping Centre, 13-15 McLaren Street, Mount Barker
  • Wednesday 12 June 2024 at the Nairne Klose's Foodland, 121 Old Princes Highway, Nairne
  • Wednesday 19 June 2024 at the Macclesfield Institute, 33 Venables Street, Macclesfield

The thoughts, ideas and feedback gathered during the community engagement period will be collated, tabled and responded to in a Summary of Consultation and Proposed Amendments (SCPA) table. This table and the updated final version of the Community Plan will be presented back to elected Council Members for approval in September 2024.