Bathurst 2040 Open Space Strategy

⁠⁠⁠Open space plays an important role in our society, including providing places for exercise, quiet reflection, children's play and organised sport. However, as our communities grow and change, greater attention needs to be placed on planning our open spaces to ensure that they are able to respond to current and future needs. An Open Space Strategy is a strategic approach for planning the current and future uses of open space within the urban areas of Bathurst.

Council provides a broad range of parklands and open space areas within the urban areas of Bathurst. With a growing population, it is important that Bathurst Regional Council has a current and comprehensive Open Space Strategy to have a clear direction of those facilities or components that are required to support the region's growth. This project aims to review the existing facilities, programs and services and provide Council with an open space strategy for the next 20 years.

The aim of the project is to provide Council with a Strategy that:
1. Identifies current open space (local and regional level and active and passive), its current usage level and facilities available at each location.

2. Predicts the optimum level of open space provision (on a per capita basis) for the population of Bathurst. (local/regional and active/passive)

3. Prioritise the actions of Council in relation to purchase, embellishment and/or upgrading of open space.

4. Identify any open space that may be suitable for disposal or repurposing.

5. Establish and/or review the minimum standards (including embellishment) of open space in accordance with Council's adopted open space hierarchy or asset maintenance level classifications.

6. Identify the optimum location of future open space (local and regional and active and passive open space).

Submissions close on 22 August 2017.