A project to help Murray and Murrumbidgee Councils better manage development impacts on the environment has been awarded the Rural and Regional Planning Achievement Award by the Planning Institute of Australia. The Local Government Spatial Data project, a joint effort by the Departments of Water and Energy, Environment and Climate Change, and Primary Industries, won the NSW Division of the Awards and would now be considered for the national Award. Project manager, Darren Wallett said the project helped Councils needing to consider a broad range of information on the environment in order to assess development applications and prepare local environment plans.
Rural planners honour project
“This information is held by a number of different Government Agencies and it’s a lot of work for Local Councils to hunt around for the right data sets and maps,” Mr Wallett said. “We wanted to make it easier for Murray and Murrumbidgee Councils to access the information they need to make wise environmental planning decisions.” He said a Local Government Data Access website for the Murray and Murrumbidgee region was created, which enabled the Councils to search, preview and request information from the relevant Agency Mr Wallett said the project had been widely embraced by Councils in the Murray and Murrumbidgee valleys and plans were underway to extend the service to the Lachlan and Macquarie valleys. “The award winning project has three distinct components; the Local Government Data Access website; land, water and biodiversity maps; and “how to notes” to complement and explain the data sets available online,” he said. “The project is a one-stop-shop for environmental and land use planning data in the Murray and Murrumbidgee region,” he said.
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