At last nights council meeting (14th October 2008) I rose to speak to the proposal for council to adopt the Built Environment Framework Report. The council officers had recommended to the Council that this important strategy did not require public consultation. I disagreed.

Referring to the significant commitment that Council made to the community in 1999 via the Vision 2020 process to engage with the community in the development of a vision for our future and the subsequent reviews of this vision every few years. Along with releasing all implementation strategies associated with each of the key themes in vision 2020. It seemed to me that it was a bit of an oversight not to allow the Built Environment Framework to be open for community comment.

I believe that council needs to trust the community and make sure that they have interpreted the community vision accurately by conducting community consultation.

I disagree with the comment made by the Director of Planning that the Municipal Strategic Statement and the Local Planning Policies are the implementation plans for this theme. These two strategic documents do not just sit under the built environment area as they have relevance to many of the other thematic elements in vision 2020 and they are the local components of the official planning scheme.

Council agreed with me and resolved to allow one months consultation on this strategy. I encourage you to have a look and make any comments either to myself or to the council directly. You can find the document here- Item 8.2 of the agenda (in four parts).

Update: Despite spelling my name incorrectly - the Upper Yarra Mail has written about this matter here.