The Rural Villages Strategy was endorsed by Council on 4 February and work on an implementation plan has begun.

Key actions identified in the adopted Strategy include:

• Future development:
  
  Location of any new development or the direction of future expansion of the villages will be identified in locality plans, prepared incrementally for individual villages. The Strategy also advocates for the regenerative development framework as a guiding principle for any future development in the villages.
  
  The Strategy introduces Planning Principles prepared for "major rural villages" and "smaller rural villages" as identified on the Rural Settlement Map to prioritise implementation of the actions.

• Integrated Trail Network in context of the Rail Trail project:
  
  Review of successful development of the tourist trails in other parts of Australia and overseas reveals that the trails may bring multiple opportunities to the local economy, including creation of jobs in tourism and retail industry, promotion of the region and flow-on benefits for the local producers and entrepreneurs. Successful development of both projects will take time and resources and will require co-operation between the key stakeholders as ultimately, the Rail Trail can become a spine of the Integrated Trail Network.

• Assistance to the local economy
  
  The Strategy includes three groups of actions aiming to facilitate local economic resilience, collaboration and better integration with the broader regional economy:
  
  
  • assistance to small businesses and entrepreneurship in the rural villages,
  • actions aiming to attract creative professionals,
  • actions to promote festivals, activities and events in the rural villages.
  
  These actions are consistent with the actions provided under the Tweed Economic Development Strategy 2014.
  
  Assistance to small businesses and entrepreneurship includes an action advocating for a review of the S94 contributions scheme for traffic-generating development, in order to provide additional incentive for entrepreneurships in the rural villages.

• Village-specific actions: Part 4 of the Strategy provides numerous actions responding to site-specific issues and ideas and includes separate chapters dedicated to each village.

A draft Rural Villages Strategy has gone on public exhibition from 29 July to 30 September 2015.

The document identifies and explores issues and opportunities for the villages, while taking into account the principles of sustainable planning, council and state government priorities and the opinions and desires expressed by the Tweed community.

It defines a vision, strategic goals and a set of actions which apply to the rural villages.

The actions have been grouped into themes:

• Development in harmony with nature - basing any new development on a set of specific principles (regenerative development principles)
• Building on assets - planning for the sustainable future of the region based on its key assets: nature, culture and people
• Strengthening the economy - promoting entrepreneurship and assisting existing and emerging small businesses
• Appropriate role, size and scale of villages - including ensuring villages maintain their role in the hierarchy of settlements
• Village-specific initiatives for individual rural villages

A series of community drop-in sessions will be held in villages throughout Tweed Shire during August and September to encourage public discussion about the draft Rural Villages Strategy.

Residents can visit a session at any time during each forum to ask questions about the draft and discuss the proposed actions included in the document. The sessions will not include any formal presentation but are designed to enable residents to speak one-on-one with a Council officer.

Click here to see the dates, venues and times for the drop-in sessions.

Council's strategic planner, Matthew Zenkteler, met with the Rural Villages Strategy reference panel on Wednesday 3 September, and a copy of his presentation is now available for download here on Your Say Tweed.

The presentation provides a summary of the consultation undertaken so far and discusses the project management approach for the next 'Design' phase, which involves the drafting of a Rural Villages Strategy.

It also outlines the proposed structure of that draft document and overlaps with other Council strategies, particularly the Rural Lands Strategy.

If you have any questions about the presentation, or the Rural Villages Strategy generally, please contact Council's Planning Reforms Unit on 02 6670 2503.

Thank you to everyone who came along to one of our 'Discovery and Dreaming' community workshops and/or took the time to make a submission on the Rural Villages Strategy discussion paper.

Although formal submissions have now closed, your feedback is always welcome.

You can review recorded feedback from each of the 'Discovery and Dreaming' workshops under the 'Community Feedback' tab. 

We are now moving into the 'Design' phase, where we create what will be in the future of our rural villages.

During the 'Design' phase, Council officers will use your ideas, suggestions and feedback collected throughout the 'Discovery and Dreaming' phase to prepare a draft Rural Villages Strategy.  This process is expected to take a few months, but once the draft is complete, we'll make it available for you to review and will again invite your feedback.

In the meantime, if you have any questions or comments regarding the Rural Villages Strategy, please contact Council's Planning Reforms unit on (02) 6670 2503.

The final workshop in the 'Discovery and Dreaming' phase will take place at Tyalgum Hall on Tuesday 12 August from 5.30 until 7pm.

The workshop was originally planned for Tuesday 8 July, but had to be postponed due to the Tyalgum Hall being unexpectedly made unavailable for use on that date. 

Come along and share your ideas and priorities for the future of the rural villages.

Don't forget, formal submissions on the Rural Villages Strategy discussion paper are invited until close of business on Friday 8 August 2014.

Community workshops

As part of the 'Discovery and Dreaming' phase of Council's Rural Villages Strategy, community members are invited to participate in a series of workshops to identify future planning priorities for key rural villages in the Tweed.

Following an initial round of information sessions in late 2013, Council officers have drafted a discussion paper, which summarises key themes and ideas raised by the community.

This current round of workshops will provide the village communities with an opportunity to review the discussion paper and identify their priorities for future planning, before a draft Rural Villages Strategy is prepared in the coming months.  Details are provided under the Key Dates section or in this printable poster. 

Discussion paper

In addition to the workshops, formal submissions on the discussion paper  are invited until close of business on Friday 8 August 2014.  

Submissions should be addressed to: 

Rural Villages Strategy
The General Manager
Tweed Shire Council
PO Box 816
MURWILLUMBAH NSW  2484

or emailed to tsc@tweed.nsw.gov.au.

For further information, contact Council's Planning Reforms Unit on 02 6670 2503.

Thank you to everyone who came along to the  community conversation held in Crabbes Creek on Thursday 20 March 2014.

A summary of the feedback collected that evening provided under the Feedback from community meetings tab on the right hand side of the page. 

Thank you to everyone who participated in the community meetings held in each of the villages throughout November.

More than 150 people provided feedback and shared their vision for the future of the Tweed's rural villages. 

A summary of the feedback collected at these meetings is provided under the Feedback from community meetings tab on the right hand side of the page, or from the site's document library. 

Please review the feedback and join the conversation:

• Share your experiences of village life by uploading a story, image or video to the Your stories section.
  
  
• Participate in a Group discussion by contributing to either the Discovery or Dreaming forums.
  
  
• Share a place that's important to you and plot on one of the Village maps.

Are you excited about the future of Tweed’s rural villages?