Blackheath Soldiers Memorial Park

Confirmed Date; Thursday 4 April 2019 (6pm - 9pm)

Venue- Small Bates Hall, Blackheath Community Centre

Cnr Gardiners Crescent and Great Western Highway, Blackheath (entry from Blackheath Gardens side)

As promised, Council will be holding this additional workshop to work through ideas in the Draft Master Plan before they are presented to the Council ready for exhibition. Analysis drawings will be tabled and some early options for the master plan will presented for discussion. The best points from the options will be combined into one master plan for Councillors to consider for exhibition.

We will provide a light supper. Please let me know if you have any specific dietary requirements, if you have not done so already.

If you could please email to confirm your ability to attend this workshop as above, it would be much appreciated. If you have not responded previously, but would still like to attend the workshop on the 4^th April, please do not hesitate to let me know. You are also welcome to forward this information to others that you think may also like to participate. RSVP – by Friday 29 March via ntaylor@bmcc.nsw.gov.au or calling me on 4780 5636. We have a limit of 35 attendees due to size of venue.

Please note that if you are unable to attend, there will be further opportunity to comment via submission during the Public Exhibition phase for the Draft Master Plan.

The first stage of community consultation for ideas, comments and suggestions for the Blackheath Soldiers Memorial Park Master Plan is now completed.

Thank you to those that attended a Special Topics workshop on the 6^th of December, where we explored some of the issues relating to accessibility, heritage, succession planting, water management and park infrastructure.

Staff will begin to draft a master plan, utilising many of the ideas, comments and suggestions put forward. Once a draft is close to completion we will hold another consultation/workshop on the draft plan before it is presented to Council.

The draft master plan will then be completed and presented to Council to go to public exhibition by mid-2019. Another round of community consultation will then take place during the public exhibition period, where there will be further opportunity to make a submission on the draft document. We will notify you when the draft master plan is on public exhibition.

Blackheath Soldiers Memorial Park is one of the four district level parks for the City of Blue Mountains. It is one of two district parks servicing the upper mountains, the other being Wentworth Falls Lake Reserve.

The masterplanning process helps Council to prioritise projects that enhance the function, character and appearance of the park progressively as funding becomes available. In other words, the master plan will act like a 'blueprint' for the park and will help guide Council's design and spending priorities into the future.

This consultation is the first stage of the master plan process and is to simply gather ideas, opinions and suggestions. Once this stage of community consultation closes, designers will create an initial master plan proposal. There will be further consultation on this initial draft plan. Feedback will inform development of a final draft plan which will then be presented to the Council to be placed on public exhibition. The public exhibition stage allows another round of community engagement with the project, with members of the public able to make submissions. These submissions will then be considered by Council and the necessary amendments made before final adoption.

Council already has an adopted Plan of Management 2009 for the park, which will continue to guide how the values and permitted uses of the park area are maintained and managed.