The development of a new East Gippsland Aquatic Strategy has started, to help guide future investment, service delivery and infrastructure planning across East Gippsland Shire Council's aquatic facilities.

A key part of developing the new strategy is receiving input from community, and will consider:

• Current aquatic community needs and perspectives.  
• Area growth and projected populations.  
• The current condition of existing facilities.
• The costs of the service and facilities over the next 10 years.
• Opportunities for infrastructure renewal, service improvement, and strategic investment.
• Aligning the new strategy with the Council Plan and Council's sports facility planning priorities.

‍

Council is working with the community to develop the strategy and has appointed @leisure Planners – an experienced sport, leisure and open space firm specialising in strategies and community engagement in the aquatics, leisure and open space field.

@leisure Planners is working directly with a Community Reference Group – self-nominated residents and representatives of peak industry bodies – to inform the strategy development and provide a broad representation of interests. The Community Reference Group met for the first time last month.

Direct engagement with key stakeholders and user groups has also started, led by @leisure Planners.

Ways you can get involved

Keep up to date with the Aquatic Strategy development on Council's Your Say page for the project through the council website.

• Here you will be able to provide your thoughts through the community survey from Monday 3 May to Friday 29 May.

Survey – have your say

The more feedback received through the survey from across the shire the better. It’s your chance to explain how you use public aquatic facilities now, and what future use and facilities should consider.

Survey responses are made directly to @leisure Planners through East Gippsland Aquatic Strategy Community and User Survey. Hard copies of the survey can also be picked up at any of Council’s customer service centres, libraries and recreation centres. De-identified responses will be shared with the community reference group to inform the strategy development.

Once a draft strategy has been prepared, a second round of community engagement will invite feedback on the findings and the draft.

Engagement enquiries can be directed to @leisure Planners via email to info@atleisure.com.au with ‘East Gippsland Aquatic Strategy’ as the subject line.