Tamworth council expects climate change, water to feature heavily in responses to sustainability survey

Tamworth Regional Council (TRC) is reviewing its sustainability strategy, and the public is set to have a major say on the plan, which will guide the organisation for the next three to five years.

One of the questions will be about whether ratepayers are willing to fork out more money in order for extra action to be taken on environmental sustainability.

"We're seeking the community's views on just how important sustainability is to the community, which is quite a broad topic and what aspects of sustainability they want us to concentrate on," TRC director of water and waste Bruce Logan said.

"We're even asking whether they're prepared to pay more money to see us do more in the sustainability area, and just what should council be doing in that area."

The last sustainability strategy lasted from 2017 to 2021, and Mr Logan expects the new one will also span a number of years and be linked to the community strategic plan, which will be changed after the next council election.

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Mr Logan said he expects the responses to change considerably from when council last did this survey.

He believes water will remain a high priority, but not to the extent of 2017 when the region was in drought, and that climate change will feature prominently in the feedback.

"I've been wrong before, but I certainly feel that sustainability, climate change and those issues are much more accepted and supported in the community than they were four years ago," he said.

"And I would expect that we'll see that in the survey results that we get."

Over the past four years, council's plan has seen it focus on water and waste conservation, along with reducing its own energy consumption. He said TRC could now expand that to look at energy use throughout the community, if that's what the public wants.

Once the results have been compiled, they will be presented to council to have their say, before a draft strategy is formed and put up for community consultation.

Along with opening up the online survey, council will also be conducting up to around 500 phone surveys.

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