The topic of her paper was the concept of sustainable development and how this can be demonstrated in the process of developing Long-term Council Community Plans (LTCCPs) under the Local Government Act 2002.  She looked at the relevant literature on sustainable development, relevant legislation and national policy statements, and domestic and overseas examples.  She finished her report with recommendations for Hamilton City Councillors to consider.

Her examples included the City of Melbourne in Australia, which takes a Tripple Bottom Line approach to assessing its programmes.  That means, that the objectives and policies which the City sets out to pursue are assessed for their social, economic and environmental impacts and relevance.  Another example is Vancouver City, Canada.  According to Carla Vancouver “has a mandate to incorporate sustainability into all city operations as a way of doing business”.  Examples of Vancouver’s long-term goals are

• To Strengthen neighbourhood centres
• Improve safety and better target community services
• Reduce reliance on the car
• Improve the environment
• Increase the variety and affordability of housing
• Define neighbourhood character
• Diversify parks and public places
• Involve people and redirect resources (City of Vancouver 2001).

The City implements neighbourhood development strategies, ‘green buildings’, carbon emission reduction goals and plans that support diversified economies.

Carla’s assessment of Hamilton City’s strategic framework as set out in the 2006-2016 LTCCP is that it is  “a nice one to have, and while no doubt that is the aim of the council, the vision itself may not be the most useful framework for getting things done in a ‘sustainable development approach’ (page 20).  She thinks the 2006 strategy is ‘jumbled and therefore less effective’.

If you want to contact Carla to find out more about her report, contact Associate Professor Lynda Johnston at University of Waikato.  Her phone contact is 07-856-2889; Email: lyndaj@waikato.ac.nz