FAQs

Orange City Council wants to find out about the community’s main priorities for the future.

Drafting those priorities into a printed plan lets the Council keep on-track with what the community expects to happen.

In NSW, in the months surrounding a new council election, each council arranges a structured conversation with members of its local community. Based on that conversation, a new blueprint for the future is put together.

This blueprint is called a ‘Community Strategic Plan’ (CSP).

The CSP describes the ‘high-level’ directions the community wants to explore. It then sets topic-area objectives and individual strategies for the incoming council (and future councils) to work towards over the next ten years.

Orange City Council arranged its first CSP planning conversation in 2011/2012. This will be the 4th time a plan has been developed. You can read more through the last CSP by clicking the link in the 'document' section.

Being involved in a future planning exercise allows community members shape what the council does.

Council wants to think big about our future – but to really be successful, we need your ideas. This is your city and it’s important for the council to know what its future looks like to you.

The CSP and its goals are the key blueprint that shapes council budgets (how money gets spent) each year.

The CSP’s 10-year focus also guides long-term planning to:

• let major projects be funded
• deliver council services
• maintain council assets
• employ the staff needed to deliver these services

The CSP also acts as a checklist which lets the council and the community keep track of progress on delivering on those strategies.

Community consultation will happen in two stages.  First, online, then, face-to-face.

Any resident can register and share their ideas about the future of Orange by filling in the blanks to topics like:

• The priority for our community should be ______ 
• Orange's biggest challenge is ______ 
• I love living in Orange because ______ 
• I wish Orange has more ______

There are many different ways to answer these. This site lets residents:

• use a map
• share their ideas
• contribute a photo or video, or
• tell their story

The ideas collected at this stage will be used to develop a set of draft themes.

The 2^nd phase of consultation aims to further refine these themes. 

The community will have a range of further opportunities to have their say, including:

• attending a community meeting
• staging a home-based conversation
• talking face-to-face at pop-up stalls in shopping centres or market-days
• making a contribution online
• and more

There are a number of ways for you to get involved:

• Online via this site (www.yoursayorange.nsw.gov.au). You can also share your ideas and vote for ideas that have already been submitted
• Our Engagement Team here at Orange City Council will pop-up at a variety of events and locations throughout the city this Summer and they’d love to talk to you. Check out the event listing with dates here - https://www.orange.nsw.gov.au/your-plan/
• Finally, you can always email us at council@orange.nsw.gov.au or send us a message on Facebook with any questions or comments you have

All this work is about making a blueprint for the future called the ‘Community Strategic Plan’ (CSP).

At the end of the community consultation, we’ll compile what we’ve heard from residents, businesses and other organisations to produce a draft plan.

The draft plan will be considered by Council and then made available for community comment, to check that we've got it right.

The final plan, with any changes based on community feedback, will be adopted by the newly elected Council.