Published on Wednesday, 22 November 2017 at 12:00:00 AM
Over the past week the Town of Port Hedland has been conducting a number of intensive planning workshops as part of the Live It Tell It Campaign.
The campaign, labelled the most extensive engagement exercise ever rolled out by the Town, aims to seek community input for the Strategic Community Plan 2018-2028.
A diverse range of residents and key stakeholders have been invited to participate in a number of surveys and exercises, which has reviewed the current vision and goals of the Town.
“Live It Tell It is a reflection of the Town of Port Hedland’s intention to be strong advocates for the community’s needs,” said Port Hedland Mayor Camilo Blanco.
“Our Strategic Community Plan is a blueprint capturing the vision for our community in the future, and in response, outlines the Town’s strategic directions to deliver on this vision. Delivering this vision is not something we can achieve in isolation. We are relying on the community to tell us how we can shape a better future”.
The campaign is at the half-way point and, despite answers and feedback being diverse, a few trends have begun to be unveiled:
- The people surveyed have voiced a shared desire to collaborate with each other to achieve a shared vision of becoming a safe, sustainable and cohesive community that people are proud to call home. They are also unanimously advocating for more opportunity for small to medium enterprise to increase economic diversity and create a lively town hub.
- Participants have largely voiced that, while the port and industry are paramount to the town, there needs to be more emphasis on supporting the diverse and vibrant community; the unique beauty of the surrounding Pilbara; the dynamic history of the town that dates back to the late 1800s; and the rich and sacred cultural significance of the land to the traditional custodians and community.
- The majority of participants have prioritised investing in services, such as arts, culture and events, sport and recreation, education, health, youth programs—over facilities and infrastructure. (It is important to note that art, culture and events, and sport and recreation have primarily been prioritised in the context of possible ways to preserve culture, celebrate the stories of the land and community, and to help vulnerable youth).
“It is an incredible responsibility to plan for the social, environmental and economic future of Port Hedland. We need to show leadership and have the ability to make tough decisions between competing priorities, limited resources and acting for the greater good of the whole region. As the Town of Port Hedland’s overarching document, the Strategic Community Plan guides everything we do, ensuring we are working towards achieving our community’s vision for the future”
The Town of Port Hedland will continue to have the survey available online until the 29th November. For more information and to complete the survey visit www.porthedland.wa.gov.au
For media information
Laura Hawes, Senior Communications Officer
(08) 9158 9365
lhawes@porthedland.wa.gov.au
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