The Mayoral Forum’s Plan for Canterbury sets out the Forum’s vision for the region and identifies five priorities for 2020 to 2022.
On Friday 4 September 2020 the Mayoral Forum launched its Plan for Canterbury. The Plan sets out the Mayoral Forum’s vision for sustainable development across all four aspects of wellbeing (environmental, economic, social and cultural).
For the remainder of this local government term (2020–22), the Forum will focus on five priorities where it can make a difference through leadership, advocacy and enabling partnerships.
- Sustainable environmental management of our habitats (land, air, water and ecosystems), focusing on land use and freshwater management.
- Shared economic prosperity – through sustainable, value-added primary production, high-value manufacturing, high-value tourism, growing attracting and retaining a skilled workforce and attracting new businesses.
- Better freight transport options – mode shift to optimise movement of long-distance freight by rail and coastal shipping to improve road safety, decrease carbon emissions and reduce wear and tear on the region’s roads.
- Climate change mitigation and adaptation – reducing our carbon footprint, building community resilience and making our infrastructure as strong as it can be.
- Three Waters services – securing safe drinking-water supplies, and ensuring that infrastructure, institutional arrangements and regulation enable the sustainable management of drinking water, wastewater and stormwater in Canterbury.
The Plan for Canterbury replaces the Canterbury Regional Economic Development Strategy (CREDS) led by the Forum since 2015.
Forum chair, Mayor Sam Broughton, reflected that just as the CREDS was shaped by the Canterbury earthquakes and their aftermath, the Plan for Canterbury has been developed in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
‘This plan was due for release in May before COVID interrupted our work on it. But we were clear on our priorities and long-term goals and these have shaped the Mayoral Forum’s approach to COVID readiness, recovery and renewal.’
The Plan for Canterbury explains why the five issues are priorities for local government and how it will monitor whether its actions make a difference.
Mayor Broughton said: ‘Now more than ever, we need to work together here in Canterbury to achieve shared prosperity that does not leave anyone behind.’
