Mayors Message Thursday 2 September 2021

What a week it has been following last week’s Council meeting which saw so many positive initiatives for the City of Ballarat endorsed. By investing in our strategic direction, maintaining our assistance to local businesses, being open in our communication and inviting everyone to have a say in critical projects we are building the base for a strong future.

The adoption of the Integrated Strategic Planning Framework documents including the Council Plan, Community Vision and Public Health and Wellbeing Plan at last week’s Council meeting are the culmination of many months hard work and the community should be proud of their invested input into the City’s future direction.

It is also great to see that forty-two Ballarat hospitality businesses will soon have new outdoor dining infrastructure installed, including umbrella sockets and/or glass wind protection barriers. The program is funded by the State Government’s Outdoor Dining and Entertainment Package, with the City of Ballarat receiving $500,000 for both its Outdoor Dining Hub Program and the Outdoor Dining Infrastructure Program. A further $500,000 has been included in the City of Ballarat’s 2021/22 budget to CBD Outdoor Dining and Streetscape Activation.

As we have seen with the Integrated Strategic Planning Framework documents, community input is critical to achieving the best planning outcomes. This Monday saw the City of Ballarat launch a new look MySay website page which provides everyone the opportunity to have their say on current projects, strategies, and initiatives and I would encourage you to be involved, as we are all Ballarat. 

Whilst we continue to face challenges, we need to stay committed to our cause in emerging from each lockdown, stronger and ready to keep moving forward. We need to continue to do the right thing, be kind to each other, stay socially distanced, get vaccinated and hopefully we can all be back together very soon.

Mayor

Cr Daniel Moloney