Long-term planning. Sounds boring. In a society where instant gratification (or nowism) is the norm, it is hard to define just what period of time people understand as ‘long-term’. To give you some idea, a recent survey examined the viewing habits of 6.7 million Internet users. The study wanted to work out how long users were willing to wait for an online video to start. The answer? Two seconds. After that period, users started abandoning. After five seconds, 25 per cent have given up and after 10 seconds, half of the people who clicked on the link move on to something else.
One of Council’s great strengths since the Municipal District of Dubbo was officially approved on 19 February 1872 has been its planning for the future – and that strength continues on to today.
Councils have a range of plans to take them into the future (in particular we have the Dubbo 2036 plan which our residents were so heavily involved with) and I find it fascinating to look at projects that we see occurring across society today and speculate when the planning for these projects may have started. When you see any major infrastructure or outcome-based projects occur across the nation, the ideas for these have typically germinated many years before the public was even vaguely aware of what was occurring. I am sure Douglas Hofstadter wasn’t just thinking of Councils when he quoted his recursive law (known as Hofstadter’s Law), “It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law.”
If we look at just a few projects occurring in our community at the moment, you gain a small appreciation of what I am talking about.
We will see the official opening of our international standard athletics facility, Barden Park, occur on 29 November this year. Most people have been aware of the obvious signs of construction that have been occurring throughout the year. Most people would not be aware that, after more than a year of planning and design work, Council adopted the Master Plan on 26 July 2010. With successful Federal and State funding this facility will be completed more than five years after the initial planning started.
If we go way back to 21 July 2006, Councillors saw the first presentation of the Regional Cities Joint Marketing Project – later to be known as Evocities. After more than four years, then Minister for Regional Australia Simon Crean launched Evocities on 22 September 2010. Next year will see the Evocity MTB Series, the first joint project of this group that will be visible in all of the Evocities (previous marketing has quite correctly focused on activities in metro areas). Obviously the presentation in 2006 was preceded by prior planning so this will be close to ten years in the making.
On 28 July 2010, in conjunction with then Mayor Allan Smith, I first met with a representative of NBN Co. Through various representations and submissions from various parts of Council, Dubbo will be only one of two Evocities with fibre connections. The first fibre connections will occur in the middle of 2015 – a period of over five years from the initial meeting.
On 20 October 2010 Council resolved to apply for an RDAF grant to upgrade the Dubbo Regional Livestock Markets – a facility that injects $47.7 million into our economy each year. We were unsuccessful on that occasion but succeeded with a subsequent grant and after good sales numbers, we are currently going through an upgrade that will be completed by the end of this year. Over four years from official start to completion. Only this week, the Saleyards Advisory Committee further discussed future upgrades for the cattle component of the saleyards. More planning for more future works.
I could continue on in detail with many projects coming to light over the next year: Centenary Anzac Day celebrations where planning started on 12 June 2013; Old Dubbo Gaol refurbishment with the $1 million grant being announced on 3 September 2013; ALDI Construction, the location of which was made possible by a change in our LEP which was gazetted on 11 November 2011; Macquarie Homestay committee was helped by fundraising and with their application to receive $3.3 million to build much-needed patient accommodation; the list goes on.
Without long-term planning, the future arrives before we know it and the view is disappointing. Even though timeframes may sound like a long-way away when we live in a society that expects photos to be uploaded while you are attending a party to tell everyone how much fun you are having at the party (so much fun that I had to stop enjoying myself to post this photo), we need governments of all shapes and sizes to plan for the long-term future of our nation – and by long-term I typically mean more than one election cycle.
Tell me if you think Councils think enough about the long-term at mayor@dubbo.nsw.gov.au.