More than 1500 submissions have been received by the Council in response to its Long Term Plan 2024-34, and more are still arriving in the mail.

Consultation on the 10-year plan closed on Sunday, and at 5pm on Monday 29 April the total of online and paper LTP submissions numbered 1521.

Mayor Neil Brown said he was thrilled by the response from the community, which was asked to consider five key decisions and priorities for spending.

“It’s not just the total number of submissions, but the broad spectrum of people we’ve heard from. We’ve received feedback from all age groups and from many people who don’t typically engage with Council consultations.”

There have also been 68 submissions on the proposed 30-year master plan for EA Networks Centre, which Council hopes to develop into a sporting hub for the district.

Mayor Brown said the number of LTP submissions was three times as many as in 2021.

“All five key decisions for this plan enjoyed a large number of submissions, but the questions around what our kerbside green waste collection looks like it and where we should invest in water-based leisure were neck-and-neck in terms of feedback, each attracting over 1300 responses.

“In addition to those five topics, roading, the second bridge and Council's spending priorities also emerged as popular discussion points.”

He said councillors had been reading through the feedback as it arrived and about 100 people had indicated that they would like to speak to their submissions at the hearings, which are scheduled for 13-16 May.

Deliberations on the final plan begin on 20 May.