As part of a process that started at the beginning of this Council term, the State Government made it mandatory for every Council to create a long-term strategic plan for their LGA. This ‘Community Strategic Plan’ had to look forward at least ten years and it is compulsory to report back to the community at the end of every (four year) term of Council. This is an excellent concept from the State Government and one designed to further involve the community in the Council process.
At the time of the introduction of this concept, Dubbo already had a ten-year plan and decided we needed to look further into the future. We also thought that reporting against the strategic plan only once every four years was simply not enough.
Therefore, in 2011, Dubbo started the process of alignment with the direction from the State Government. Instead of a ten-year plan we decided on a twenty-five year plan – called Dubbo 2036. We also made the decision to formally report back to the community on an annual basis. We wanted to ensure that our community had ample opportunity to see our report card so we created a ‘State of the City’ presentation style report in addition to the provision of printed material.
Last Friday was our State of the City report for 2014/2015 and I am happy to report some aspects of that report here.
Our population has grown by 1.4 per cent to now be at 41,573 and our unemployment has gone down to 4 per cent – much better than the State figure of 6 per cent. Our visitor numbers continue to grow with an increase of 29 per cent in annual overnight visitors to 523,000 and our annual day visits have gone up 22 per cent to 556,000.
Our airport is one of our star performers. 188,907 passengers went through our airport last year – an increase of 1.45 per cent. The average for regional airports across the nation is a decrease in passengers of 1.9 per cent. We now have 158 flights per week servicing four ports and, with the announcement made this week, we will shortly have 168 RPT flights each week including services to Melbourne and Brisbane.
Investment opportunities are good with the median house price rising 5 per cent to $320,000 and the median unit price rose 8 per cent to $240,000. Not only did we have an increase in Development Applications by 10 per cent to 769 – with a total value of $180.3 million – we also had our highest number of dwelling approvals in ten years. We have had many major projects such as DCL Park and upgrades to the Dubbo Regional Livestock Markets (DRLM) – many with help from both State and Federal Governments. As an example of contributions from other levels of government, DCL Park was built at a cost of $6.91 million but only $958,000 was provided by Council. All of these major projects help provide ongoing funds into our community. The DRLM alone injects $75.6 million into our economy on an annual basis.
There were three survey statistics that I found most pleasing though. From our just completed Community Needs Survey, satisfaction levels were gauged from our community. 69 per cent are satisfied with the performance of Councillors. This is up by 2 per cent from the previous survey in 2013 and up from 40 per cent in the previous survey undertaken before I was Mayor. 82 per cent of our residents are satisfied with overall operations of Council which is up by 11 per cent and again a massive jump from the 53 per cent in the previous survey. Lastly, I have focussed on communication in my time as Mayor. 93 per cent of our community says that they are satisfied with opportunities to have a say on Council issues. This is up by 7 per cent and again a large jump from the previous survey results of 74 per cent.
These figures are only a small snapshot of the total sample – you can see the entire State of the City Report on YouTube – but I certainly feel proud of how our City is performing right now and I feel that both myself and this Council team has had a large bearing on these positive results.
With the Mayoral election being held after this column’s deadline, I may not be Mayor as you are reading this. If that is the case, I can be very proud that I left the City in a better position after my time in the position. If I am still Mayor as you read this, I look forward to continuing to work hard for the next year and hopefully I will be able to deliver further excellent results like we have just seen in this State of the City report.
Tell me your thoughts on where Dubbo currently sits at mayor@dubbo.nsw.gov.au.