Ipswich City Council Administrators Update - Vision 2020 December 2018

2 Interim Administrator Greg Chemello endorsed a recommendation at council’s Communities Committee that a new framework for community reference groups be established to align to the new standing committees of council as follows: economic development, communities, growth and infrastructure, environment, and governance. This structure will then be supplemented by a second ‘tier’ of engagement with various community and business groups on an operational or project basis. In implementing this new framework, council has reviewed its existing engagement mechanisms and made a tough decision to dissolve some of the long standing reference groups. “While some of our longer standing reference groups evidence real community strength at a local level, over the years, they’ve become less effective, perhaps not providing the community with as much input into strategic issues of council as they should,” Mr Chemello said. “It is important that we recalibrate our community engagement with council through this period of administration. This is a great opportunity for us to re-engage with community at a strategic level.” The new community reference groups will seek to achieve membership that is broadly representative of the community, and these will be chaired by the Interim Administrator until new councillors are elected. Early in the new year, council will be seeking expressions of interest from the community to establish membership in the five committees. Groups to be dissolved include the City Country Reference Group, Leichhardt One Mile Community Consultative Committee, Rosewood Walloon Consultative Committee, and the Seniors Consultative Committee. 250,000 RESIDENTS WILL SOON CALL IPSWICH HOME It was just over a decade ago that Ipswich celebrated its 150,000th resident. Well, 11 years on the city is surging towards the 250,000 mark at an unprecedented rate. The population of Ipswich has officially cracked the 215,000 point. At this current growth, 250,000 is only two or three years away. And it is likely to double over the next decade or so according to official population projections. Council’s Planning and Development Quarterly Activity Report for July-September 2018 confirms the city’s continuing high population growth rate – now soaring to an amazing 5.38 per cent. Our highest growth rate previously was 4.5 per cent in 2009. An extra 2,858 people now call Ipswich home, increasing our population to 215,391. Ipswich had previously topped the 210,000 mark in the January-March 2018 quarter. The other significant markers were: 150,000 (2007), 175,000 (2011), 190,000 (2015) and 200,000 (2016). The South East Queensland Regional Plan projects Ipswich’s population to be a shade under 500,000 by 2036. Council’s Planning and Development Department, has the mantra: “Building a balanced and sustainable Ipswich with a strong economy, key infrastructure and a community that cares for each other and the environment”. At committee, the department referenced its nationally-recognised, award winning Ipswich Population Modeller (IPM), a measurement tool to estimate the city’s population figures based on wheelie bin rollouts. The IPM uniquely estimates the city’s population based on wheelie bin rollouts and consistently scores tops mark for accuracy against each census. Recent ABS figures have consistently seen Ipswich ranked as one of the fastest growing cities in Queensland and in the top 10 nationwide. The population hotspots are Spring Mountain, South Ripley, Redbank Plains, Ripley and Bellbird Park. Spring Mountain, the latest booming suburb in Greater Springfield, experienced 106 per cent growth over the previous quarter. Population more than doubled from 664 to 1,370 and that will continue to flourish as more people move into the sprawling new development. It was a similar 106 per cent growth in terms of new dwellings, doubling from 226 to 466. The building boom also continues unabated across the region, as Ipswich continues to be the envy of local government areas across Queensland. Stay up-to-date with council’s news Ipswichfirst.com.au COMMUNITY INPUT INTO COUNCIL DECISION MAKING