Economic Strategy is same meaningless flummery

Heaven help us all, on top of the Covid-19 epidemic, we now have the Council's draft Economic Development Strategy 2020-2040 to cope with.

Anyone who anticipated that it would be the same flummery as the Local Strategic Planning Statement will be pleased to know that the expectation has been fully justified.

Pages and pages of meaningless jargon lead only into the wilderness of insubstantial conclusions and unverifiably vague forward directions, leaving not a wrack of substance behind.

How much unproductive time (and ratepayers' money) is being spent on churning out these unreadable and pointless documents that are fit only to swell the contents of the recycling bin on garbage-collection days.

To take only one example (there is an "embarras de richesses" to choose from), the Strategy's Performance Framework sets out, as the "Performance Dimension" (whatever that means) for Programs and Projects, the Objectives of "deliver(ing) high-quality projects and programs, increas(ing) participation in economic development programs (and) ensur(ing) programs and projects address community and customer needs", and the success of these efforts will be measured through "project management metrics and milestones, level, frequency and distribution of participation (and) program design and engagement".

I am sure that every resident will be heartened to see that the Council has come fully to grips with the outstanding issues that we shall face over the next 20 years, with such a firm basis for moving forward.

If only we knew what this verbiage meant, beyond the banally obvious.

We don't need any more reports telling us that we need more studies, reports, reviews, assessments, consultations, analyses and discussions.

We have wasted a whole Council term of office without being any further forward with usable tools for guiding the city's future.

How much more procrastination do we have to put up with from the current crop of councillors?

Email, 23 Jun 2020

Bruce Hyland, Woy Woy