A COMMUNITY group has launched an ambitious plan to find out what residents and ratepayers want for the future of the Mornington Peninsula.
The results of an online survey to be conducted by Peninsula Speaks will be managed by Market Metrics and analysed by the Strategy Planning group.
The findings will be provided to all three levels of government in the hope that they will be taken into account when decisions and policies affecting the peninsula are made.
Peninsula Speaks, which describes itself as “a community advocacy organisation concerned with the protection of the Mornington Peninsula’s environment and landscape values”, wants people to register online to participate in the survey.
Co-founded by Christine Haydon and Peter Avery, Peninsula Speaks sees itself as providing “a vehicle for its supporters … to make sure the community is able to play its part in learning about inappropriate development proposals, developing community responses, planning actions to combat the proposals and, most importantly, making our councillors aware of the community’s responses and wishes”.
Ms Haydon said they would like 3000 people to participate in the initial survey so it reflected public attitudes “on a broad range of topics”.
Follow-up surveys would be conducted using a database of people who registered to participate in the first survey.
“Their input will be vital in informing decision making at federal, state and local government levels to shape the future allowing for population growth, managed development and climate change,” Ms Haydon said.
“The process will involve simple online surveys on a wide ranging series of topics distributed electronically on a periodic basis.”
Mr Avery said Peninsula Speaks wanted to “gain the widest possible range of views about the Mornington Peninsula, both now and how it could be by 2030”.
He said answers to the survey would “identify the key priorities for the future and help inform and guide the key decision makers on the peninsula”.
“Individual answers will be collated along with the answers from all the other completed surveys, so they will never used on an individual basis.”
Questions on the initial survey ask respondents such things as what makes life on the peninsula “special”; what changes will have occurred by 2030; priorities for action; attitudes towards such developments as the Port of Hastings, Point Nepean, low cost housing, aged care, public transport and industrial development in green wedge-zoned areas; climate change; emergency planning (bushfires); and their attitudes towards Mornington Peninsula Shire Council (which carries out its own annual “satisfaction” survey).
Register your interest in the Peninsula Speaks online survey by emailing: info@peninsulaspeaks.org.au
First published in the Mornington News – 8 March 2016
