samantha in the press

Push for booze law change
Mail Newspapers
by Kath Gannaway
18 Feb 2014

health and wellbeing - what do you think?

report from the roundtable - 23 jul

At this week's council meeting councillors unanimously voted to release the draft Health and Wellbeing Plan for public comment. The development of a municipal Health and Wellbeing Plan is a legislative requirement under the Victorian Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008.

The Health and Wellbeing Plan is an over-arching strategic document, which sets the goals and priorities for improving public health and wellbeing in Yarra Ranges.  

The Health and Wellbeing Plan draft contains the following priority areas:

- Healthy places, healthy people;
- Positive mental health and wellbeing;
- Service access for a healthier Yarra Ranges; and
- A healthy start to life as the foundation for lifelong wellbeing.

One of the goals under Healthy Places, Healthy People is to increase understanding, access and consumption of healthy food, the aims to achieve this goal include:
- Increase skills and confidence to buy and prepare fresh foods as part of a daily diet.

- Increase awareness of the value of healthy eating by working with our partner organisations.

- Address food insecurity for our most vulnerable residents through innovation.
- Increase understanding of healthy food and fruit and vegetable intake by supporting community-led projects such as community gardens.
- Secure water for food production by working with agribusinesses.
- Ensure continued protection of food production areas of the municipality by advocating to the State Government.
- Inform solutions and resource allocation by understanding the barriers to healthy eating in our diverse communities.
- Seek greater local planning control over decisions affecting health through advocacy to the State Government

Yarra Ranges is seeking comments and feedback from the community about the draft Plan now. Submissions close on Friday, September 6th, at 5pm. Please address submissions by post to Social Planning and Development unit, PO Box 105, Lilydale, VIC 3140, or by email to mail@yarraranges.vic.gov.au.

You can find out more about the draft Health and Wellbeing Plan here.

you aint seen nothing yet

 

I had the pleasure of speaking at the No Maccas in The Hills community meeting today. It was great to see a couple of hundred people join the meeting, forfeiting their sunny Sunday afternoon to hear more about the campaign.

I spoke about the process of the demolition on the site as well as a couple of important consultations the council is currently undertaking.
 

I explained the demolition was a separate process to the construction and that a demolition permit would be issued by a private building surveyor, as part of that process an ‘asset protection permit’ would need to be issued by council to ensure the protection of council assets, in this case the footpath and drains. I said council would get a copy of the demolition permit and also be advised of when the demolition would take place. For more general info on the demolition process read my recent blog entry here.

I talked first about council’s consultation on our health and wellbeing plan and how important it is to input to this consultation. I have heard so much about the proximity of this development to sensitive uses such as the Primary School and the PreSchool, it’s important that if the community are concerned about this and any potential to link to childhood obesity then they need to input to the online forum and the health and wellbeing consultation is the right place to do it. You can read more about participating here.
 

I then talked about what’s called in planning jargon, C126. C126 is a planning scheme amendment that seeks to include Design and Development Overlays (DDOs) in the planning scheme to guide the built form in townships. Given that built form was such an important element in the objection to McDonalds I expected that the community might include their concerns about drive through restaurants and their impact on pedestrian friendly design and pedestrian friendly townships. I also talked about Hurstbridge and their “township zoning” which means there is greater scrutiny over any application process unlike the Business One zone currently in place in Tecoma and that may be something the community might like to further investigate. You can read more about submitting to the C126 consultation here.

I encouraged meeting goers to participate across the consultation process, it’s very hard to make a case to my councillor colleagues and to other tiers of government without submissions calling for change, submissions and participation from the community gives a far greater credibility to any advocacy or planning scheme changes we might undertake.
 

I finished by saying if anyone asked me if the campaign had reached its full potential I would have no hesitation in telling them you aint seen nothing yet.

living healthy, living well? we want to know

Yarra Ranges Council is developing its 2013 – 2017 Health and Wellbeing Plan and we want to hear from you.

As part of our role in supporting the community lead a healthy life we have developed a health profile which has identifies a range of health issues across Yarra Ranges. These include diabetes and obesity, poor nutrition, lack of physical activity, poor mental health, alcohol consumption, and smoking.  Many of Yarra Ranges’ health issues particularly impact young people.  

Demographic and infrastructure issues affecting the municipality include lack of access to health services, low levels of education, and socio-economic disadvantage having a major impact on several outer townships.  The costs of housing, transport and food have a particularly heavy impact on disadvantaged households across Yarra Ranges.  The available data indicates that many of these issues are getting worse over time. 

Council can support communities in many ways including through the provision of services, facilities and infrastructure like community hubs, parks and open space. Another key role for council is advocacy to state and federal government on the health needs of our community. We also work with service providers to response to community health needs and issues.  

Now is your chance to tell us what you think about healthy living in Yarra Ranges. Is there anything that concerns you about your health or the health of the community? Here’s your opportunity to tell us what you think.

Click here to participate in the online forum or call our Social Planning and Development Officer, Cathi Walker on 9294 6113 for more info.