General News
7 May, 2026
You asked for it: how council will deliver
Southern Downs residents feedback
You told council what is most important to you, and here is how they intend to carry out your vision. Hundreds of residents interacted with SDRC staff and most councillors to create the five year corporate plan, or sent submissions, and that information has been verified, collated, and broken down into five main themes.
Southern Downs Regional Mayor, Cr Melissa Hamilton, who has attended many of the community engagement sessions across the region, says that she got the sense that people have never felt very involved in the planning before.
“A lot of people have come up and said ‘this is really great’“, she told the Town & Country Journal.
The themes are the dream, but what about making the dream come true? That becomes part of the SDRC five year operational plan, which is now in draft and ready for comment. Below, in bold, is what residents have asked for, and how council proposes to address the issues.
Relationships between the council and the community
Council proposes a customer experience strategy to make it easier to do business with council; simplify the leasing processes; implement a new grants policy with improved transparency; refresh the SDRC website; develop and launch a public dashboard on council performance; and provide natural disaster preparedness support.
Reliable everyday infrastructure and services.
Council proposes a new waste strategy and enter into a new waste collection contract; deliver at least 80% of the capital works program; deliver maintenance for sealed and unsealed roads; improve efficiency by tracking and reducing water loss; increase water security by restoring service reservoirs at Hawker Road and Kenilworth Street; analyse and design for additional water storage in Stanthorpe; renew and maintain footpaths and kerbs.
Liveable communities.
Work with community groups to plan and deliver local events; increase animal management compliance including inspection programs; implement the new planning scheme and moving it online; develop a growth management strategy; improve maintenance of parks and open spaces; better connect footpaths and cycleways.
Responsible management.
Delivery a financial sustainability strategy and maintain financial reserves; review procurement processes; develop an integrated risk framework; review and update council’s local laws in line with best practice; strengthen council’s cyber security protocols.
Strong local economy.
Deliver an economic development strategy; continue to support tourism with an updated tourism strategy; implement an event strategy to attract new events to the region. Council will report quarterly on “how we are tracking against the operational plan” to residents. Locals who are interested should visit the SDRC website’s “Have your say” page and download the 8-page summary.
“It is user-friendly,” said the mayor. “It is this is what we heard from you and this is what we’ve taken from that for commitments to the community.”
