According to Council Economic Development Officer Phil Moore, Hawkesbury Place Plans report is the result of Council’s involvement in the Resilience Sydney program (2018) which was a Global City Competition funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and 33 metropolitan Councils. It was run by the Metro Board Steering Committee and hosted by Sydney City Council.

For further information see https://knowledge.aidr.org.au/media/9067/beck-dawson-resilient-sydney-adrc21.pdf

Hawkesbury Council employed an inner-city consultancy business called CRED to develop 'Place Plans' for our rural communities. CRED used qualitative data supplied from other reports done by other consultancy businesses for Council. The original data has not been identified or retained. In other words, no one knows who said what and if they really said it. As a result, the information in those reports is not reliable.

The draft Hawkesbury Place Plans report was put on public exhibition for comment last year. Council then engaged another inner-city consultancy business Meck Studio to make the final report that is going to direct future funding of $100’s million dollars to fashion our local villages in the likeness of the Place Plans.

Businesses spent time reviewing the maps of the village correcting mistakes and including things they wanted.

Comments that reflect the feeling expressed at the meeting were:

“It’s madness that because of participation in a Sydney City competition we have ended up with place plans designed by people who have never been off the concrete and think we need truck stops, bike tracks and temporary cafés in our villages”.

“Its ridiculous planning and a disgraceful waste of our money and resources.”

“The document is not based on any directive from NSW Planning or the Office of Local Government so the easiest way to deal with it is throw it in the bin.”

REFERENCES:

Hawkesbury City Council Draft Place Plans www.yourhawkesbury-yoursay.com.au/draft-place-plans

Email from Hawkesbury City Council Economic Development Phil Moore dated 20 March 2024 responding to BLOR BC request for the reference document that initiated the requirement for Place Plans.

Resilient Sydney Program (2018) https://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/governance-decision-making/resilient-sydney

BLOR BC undertook to discuss with Councillors whether the document should be discarded as it doesn’t contain valid and reliable information and is riddled with mistakes and so is not of an acceptable standard for a government publication.

If the report is retained then a Steering Committee of Councillors should be convened to oversee Council Administration obtainment of reliable qualitative and quantitative data, that is data results used can be replicated and so validated.

Next the Steering Committee could ensure that the report be constructed so it contains little or no mistakes and, in this way, make the report of an acceptable standard for a government publication.