February 8th, 2024Hundreds provide input on Ballarat’s open spaces

More than 700 people have provided their feedback to help develop the City of Ballarat’s new Open Space Strategy.  

It represents the first stage of a collaborative approach to guide how Ballarat’s open spaces will look in the city over the next 10 years.  

The focus of the consultation stage was to understand how Ballarat uses open space and determine the community’s key priorities for open spaces, while also identifying some potential risks to open space.

The first round of feedback is now being analysed by the City of Ballarat and it is expected that a draft Strategy will be available for review and a second round of consultation in early April 2024.  

The first round of community feedback showed that people rank biodiversity and trees as one of the highest priorities in Ballarat’s open spaces.  

Following that, the community said accessibility and inclusion were important, followed by appropriate infrastructure, paths and trails, play spaces and mitigating climate change.  

The community’s feedback raised concerns about the lack of biodiversity in Ballarat’s open spaces, followed by population pressures, upkeep of open spaces and maintenance, as well as access to walking and cycling paths.  

There were more than twenty reasons people visited open spaces in Ballarat, the top reasons are:

• To observe and be in nature  
• To undertake casual exercise  
• To spend time with family and friends  
• To use the play spaces with children  
• Cycling and mountain biking.  

City of Ballarat Mayor Cr Des Hudson said it’s encouraging to see so many people sharing their views on the city’s open spaces.  

“The Open Space Strategy will guide us in developing parks and reserves for our community for the next ten years, it’s important it reflects the Ballarat’s community’s needs,” he said.  

“We look forward to the next stage of the consultation, to work with specific user groups to co-design and develop the strategy.”  

The next step will be to present a draft Open Space Strategy to the community and hold focused collaborative co-design sessions with specific user groups, to enable completion of the strategy.

The strategy will provide guidance to the City of Ballarat on where to locate different types of parks, reserves and open spaces, and what activities and equipment are needed in the spaces, as well as providing guidance on how the parks can suit the varying needs of the Ballarat community.