Mildura Rural City Council’s Strategic Planning team has been recognised at State level by the country’s peak planning industry body, the Planning Institute of Australia – Victoria Division.
Council’s Mildura CBD Access and Mobility Strategy won the award for Best Strategic Planning Project at the Planning Institute of Australia’s (PIA) Victoria Division Awards.
The PIA described the project as “a comprehensive and visionary strategic project that tackles the challenge of transitioning to more sustainable and effective mobility in a regional city context”.
PIA judges noted the “ambitious agenda for change, founded on a strong evidence base”, highlighting the project was still able to be completed with limited budget and resources.
“The strategy is driving actions that are delivering meaningful improvement to the mobility landscape of Mildura,” the PIA said.
“The project provides inspiration to other councils, and also sets up a template of what is possible in car dependent regional towns.”
The strategy, which was endorsed last year, aims to improve access and mobility to and within Mildura’s CBD and is part of the broader Mildura CBD Plan 2020-2035.
Key components of the plan include:
- Creation of micro-mobility lanes to accommodate mobility scooters, electric scooters, e-bikes and skateboards
- Standardising all on-street car parking to two hours
- Providing more than 70 additional free all day carparks on Pine Avenue, by removing the three-hour time limit on the Pine Avenue Council-owned car park at the rear of Coles supermarket, opposite Tilley’s Furniture
- Establishing a protected bike network providing safer cycling options to the CBD from more distant suburbs and townships
- Introduction of a 30km per hour speed limit within the CBD.
Mildura Mayor Liam Wood said the accolade reinforced the work of Council’s Strategic Planning team to improve access and mobility in the city’s CBD.
“When we move around in our CBD, whether it’s on foot, in a car or on a bike, we often take for granted how easy and safe it is to get around,” Cr Wood said.
“This only comes about through sound strategic direction, which our team have certainly delivered in this example, and we’ll continue to see more improvements as more actions contained within the strategy are delivered.
“I’d like to congratulate the Strategic Planning team for their work and success and thank those in our community who contributed feedback to this project.”
The Mildura CBD Access and Mobility Strategy will now automatically be entered into the PIA’s national awards early next year.
