Cairns Regional Council have been holding a series of invited workshops around the region to help them plan forward for tomorrow.

The locations included Tanks Art Centre, Mossman Admin Building, Port Douglas community hall, Boathouse (JCU) in Smithfield and the RSL Hall at Gordonvale.  

In the invitation, the Cairns Regional Council stated that they want to know our dreams, our hopes and our vision on how our region will unfold over the next 20 years and beyond.  Organisers said "This is your community and your voice needs to be one of those calling directions for the path we take into the future".

Mayor Val Schier said "This is a vital process for all future planning and we are delighted with the attendance levels at each of the venues".

The stakeholders invitation list included special interest groups, community leaders, business people, individuals who wanted to have their say, regardless of age, gender, geographic location, income levels, ethnicity or religion.

The workshops were hosted by Allan Tranter from independent consultants, Creating Communities.  Mr Tranter guided the participants through the various categories of consideration including local, regional and economic to create a well constructed and documented series of comments for the council team to take on board and include in their future planning. 

These workshops are designed to capture everything that each individual audience considered unique to their area and what was essential to maintain the character of the people and the region.

Division 10 CRC Councillor Julia Leu said, "This is an excellent forum to make sure our local (Division 10) views are heard and included within the context of the bigger regional picture".

The final word goes to the organisers who stated that to get the widest picture possible, "We believe this means working in new ways to make sure we hear your opinions and engage in consultation in the most effective ways possible".

Editors Comments: I attended the Mossman workshop personally and was most impressed with the overall structure of the workshop.  Time, of course, will tell whether any or all of the very innovative ideas and views that I heard just from this session let alone the from the other 5 sessions will reach fruition.  There appears to be a genuine intention behind these workshops but it's down to the politicians to convert them into reality.  If you missed these workshops, I'm sure your views could still be taken into consideration...why not comment below and we'll make sure they reach the right ears!