By JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
HOW MANY plans does it take to run a region?
Quite a few if Committee for Geelong’s pitch for state election commitments is any indication.
The committee this week called for transport and Geelong growth plans as part of its policies for the election.
The committee’s Geelong on Track plan seeks funding to develop a 25-to-50-year passenger and freight rail strategy.
The Growing Geelong Charter wants money to develop a “Geelong-led strategic framework to grow Geelong”.
Geelong already has a G21 Regional Growth Plan, which Planning Minister Matthew Guy released last year as a 40-year blueprint for the region.
At the time Mr Guy said the Regional Growth Plan provided a “critical framework to underpin economic and jobs growth while protecting and preserving the region’s precious cultural and environmental assets”.
The plan identified residential land supply for the next 30 to 40 years to accommodate a projected population of 500,000 and employment land to accommodate up to 80,000 new jobs by 2050.
Geelong’s council also has an “integrated comprehensive transport plan” – following a dozen other transport-related plans – to be presented next week, as well as a strategy to revitalise the central city area.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott outlined a “positive plan to build on Geelong’s many competitive strengths to make it an even better place to work and raise a family” in the Independent in July.
“Our plan will build better infrastructure, deliver programs to help local businesses grow and generate jobs and improve community services including the NDIS,” Mr Abbott said.
Geelong even gets a guernsey in last year’s State Government Melbourne Plan.
Committee head Rebecca Casson said Geelong needed locally-developed plans.
“Short-termism isn’t delivering for Geelong. We all want the best for Geelong but we don’t have a shared understanding of what that is,” Ms Casson said.
“Geelong lacks a united plan. The plans we develop from now on must have the broad support of the entire community and they need to endure beyond political cycles.
“We must develop a shared understanding of what growth means for Victoria’s second largest city.”
Mayor Darryn Lyons said council’s new transport plan was developed after a review of the G21 Region Public Transport Strategy, Geelong Road Safety Strategy, Geelong Port and Land Infrastructure Plan and the G21 Regional Growth Plan.
