Environment

6.1.1 - Is this the plan that is being consulted on at the moment on this site?

.2 - very process oriented. What are Council actually thinking about doing?

.3 - agree (to protect the aquaculture industry), but how?

.4 - again, no commitment to actually do anything...

.5 - agreed, to protect wetland areas I assume?

.6 - This is not selfexplanatory

6.2.1 - as above...

.2 - about time - there has been far too much clearing in the past 15 years

.3 - YES

7.1.1 - Is this a waste of time? Will it mean putting unreasonable restrictions on property owners with coastal properties.

7.2.1 - Is this differnt to vegetation mapping?

7.3.1 - I think Council can do better than this by offseting.

7.3.2 - What is this?

7.4.1 - another plan...

7.4.2 - Agreed

Goals 6 & 7 are admirable but the plan is very narrowly focussed on (a) the Council's own energy and water use, and (b) a few very specific environmental issues. Missing is the equally important big picture encouragement of the community to become more sustainable. The plan doesn't even adequately support the good work the Council is already doing in this respect, let alone the extra that it should be doing.

Part 6

5.1.1 - Ensure that "identify resources" ..... does not detract from the basic Council requirements to maintain existing facilities to an acceptable standard. We can bring more development, businesses, tourists into our area but if Council should keep its "eye on the ball" of the basic things ratepayers and residents expect - basic infrastructure like roads, footpaths, toilet blocks well maintain, parking, playgrounds, parks, reserves to name a few.

5.2.9 Commendable objective - refer to comment above. Let's not forget the basics

Part 7 Goal 6 Environmental Protection

6.1.1. is commendable but.....How does Council propose to fund 90% of the recommendations in the plan within 3 years when it's taken several more years just to put the plan itself together?

6.2 Weed management - Is Council to continue to rely pretty heavily on volunteers in their planning or are they actually going to put some serious $s to eradicating the abundance of weeds we have. Much more needs to be done and funded.

6.2.2. How come Council hasn't had a vegetation management plan before this? Is this just another plan - or would be better to link some of the plans together, eg, links to Koala Plan of Management?

7.1.1. The identification of areas which could be affected by climate change is commendable - let's not just have another reason for proscrastinating on implementing other foreshore plans in the meantime - and actually putting some $s to funding them. We need much less rhetoric and writing... and more actual work and action on implementation.

7.3.1 Council's greenhouse gas emmisions reduction (a 20% reduction from 1996 is far too easy to achieve - it should be more) - what about getting the community more aware of this - and providing some incentives for people to move on this, eg pave the way for links of solar power grids to main grids in the area by checking on DA requirements - encourage rather than discourage by paperwork. Require plumbers to not automatically set solar hot water heaters to an automatic (rather than manual) booster switch. Encourage the phasing out of off peak hot water rates to have people more aware of their power usage and the impact on the environment. Just a start.