Sunshine Coast Regional Council – Council Corner

Council Corner is your first stop to keep up to date with regional council news and regular council columns. Do you have a question for your division representative? Email it to us at: noosaed@scnews.com.au

Review on agenda

After a long and exhausting process to secure a permanent chief executive officer, involving a large number of applications and finally a shortlist of two, the offer was made to John Knaggs, who has been acting as interim CEO.

Now we can start to make full and permanent changes and the very first thing is to review the structure of the organization and make sure it aligns with the vision for the region set by the council at our recent strategy workshop.

Coast produce in focus

Out of the reconstruction of the council, I’m looking at the establishment of a regional economic development division and we’ve had a number of workshops focused on modeling this unit.

One of the interesting projects will be the opportunity to progress a produce marketplace for rural retailers and wholesalers on the Coast. This will support our rural industries, help with wholesale markets and help the restaurateurs buy their food at a cost saving.

This means the food does not have to be trucked from here to Brisbane and back to be sold to someone 50km away.

This solution will save on a lot of costs including petrol and strengthen the ties between our growers, end-users and value-adders: those who will package it up and export it. This system will also maximize the freshness of the produce.

Biosphere’s our business

The biosphere is largely about human activity in a pristine natural environment and what has to be addressed very quickly is the notion of an economy that sustains the community that exists here.

One of the biggest misconceptions is that managing the impact of our business practices on the environment will limit our capacity to grow economically. This is simply untrue.

What it comes down to is for the council to work with the community through creating a structure and policy framework that allows the Sunshine Coast region to become more self reliant through developing and exporting our capital in creative industries and knowledge-based economy.

The biosphere already has a number of community advisory boards working towards the harmonious relationship between people and environment from an economic, social, environmental, cultural, education and research perspective. It’s fantastic the council’s vision is well aligned with the values of the biosphere set out by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.

I’m close to Cootharaba

On Saturday, August 30, I will address the Cootharaba community about what the biosphere means for them and beneficial changes to the Noosa plan. This talk is part of our community engagement strategy to help me stay close to what’s going on.

So I look forward to seeing members of the Cootharaba community at Lake Cootharaba Sailing Club on Boreen Parade from 10:30am for a sausage sizzle and chat, and for them to meet with the team at the Tewantin Office: Cathy, Colleen and Christina. The day has been coordinated by Keith Pugh from the Cootharaba community working group.

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