City of Melbourne takes home prestigious planning award

Thursday, 30 October 2008

The City of Melbourne has won the prestigious Local Government award at this year’s Planning Excellence 2008 Victorian Awards for its 'Future Melbourne Community Plan'initiative.

This award winning plan enabled community stakeholders to actively set out their vision for Melbourne through the use of a range of technologies and forums, including a website, eVillage and the Future Melbourne ‘wiki’ – which allowed real time online input and editing of the Future Melbourne Plan.

Over the course of 13 months approximately 15,000 individuals, businesses, schools, organisations and community groups from across Melbourne and the globe participated in the consultation, via a wide variety of forums.

City of Melbourne Chief Executive Officer Dr Kathy Alexander said that the Awards for Planning Excellence was one of the year’s most significant events for the Victorian planning community, and she was delighted that the City of Melbourne had been recognised for its unique approach to developing a community driven plan for the future of Melbourne.

“Future Melbourne is the community of Melbourne’s long-term plan for the future direction of all aspects of city life. It envisages Melbourne to be a bold, inspirational and sustainable global city and one of the top ten most liveable and sustainable cities in the world.”

“The City of Melbourne remains committed to ensuring that it responds to the needs and interests of its residents. Future Melbourne provides us with a clear vision to grow Melbourne as a global and sustainable city,” Dr Alexander said.

In their citation, the Local Government Award Judging Panel said,

“All too often, policy development has paid mere lip service to consultation and community engagement, resulting in the failure of plans to address significant issues, or a lack of community ownership. Rather than taking the traditional top down approach to policy development, the Future Melbourne project team swam against the tide and developed a Community Plan from the bottom up.”

The 2008 Victoria Division Awards for Planning Excellence were announced on October 17, and presented at the RMIT Storey Hall, Swanston Street, Melbourne.