As part of a region identified as ‘Australia’s lowest level of well being’, Brighton Council’s Bridgewater Gagebrook Urban Renewal project (BURP) developed a number of community based strategies to improve the quality of life, community pride and the self esteem of people living in the area.
This project has achieved a 60 per cent drop in property crime and an increased demand for housing. This initiative has already won a number of awards. It was the category winner for Community Services in the 1999 National Award for Innovation in Local Government. More recently it also won the Community Development category in the Tasmanian Local Government Awards for Excellence.
“This is a model that other Councils can use, where people are empowered to work in partnership with Council to achieve improvements,” said community representative Chris Fitzpatrick, who has worked on the project for four years.
“Bridgewater was becoming a ghost town with people not wanting to live here. There were high levels of youth vandalism and many people were living below the poverty line. Four years on, there has been an 80 percent reduction in vandalism and all homes are filled.”
“This was achieved because Brighton Council was brave enough to let us, as residents, decide what the problems were and how to solve them.
“The choice was ours, to have a fair go to work in partnership with Council.”
A suburb of Hobart, Brighton through BURP targeted seven areas of community life, including development, transport, housing, youth, recreation and environment.
BURP’s achievements include improved media coverage of the Bridgewater Gagebrook community, a successful community festival, a ‘spring cleaning’ day, tree planting and mural painting.
Local high school students have also developed a scale model of the area, which is used to plan the location of new community facilities. During 1998, the BURP initiative created 491 paid employment opportunities for residents.
Close consultation with youth has resulted in a sports activities centre and youth nightclub.
For further information contact Christine Fitzpatrick, telephone (03) 6263 4303
