GRAAFF-REINET NEWS — Last week saw the start of the Dr Beyers Naudé Municipality's Mayor, Cllr Deon de Vos's annual outreach to communities in all 14 wards of the municipal area.

The programme kicked off in Aberdeen, with Wards 1 and 7.

IDP Manager Leonie Fouché and CFO Heleen Vos gave their presentations after the Mayor provided feedback to community members on matters raised at his April 2017 outreach.

Residents indicated that they were very pleased with this approach, and took it as a sign that the municipality was now more responsive to their concerns.

The structure and content of the Draft 2018/19 IDP and amendments thereto were explained by Fouché, who also spoke about the revised Ward Development Priorities that were reprioritized by the communities during the public participation meetings held from August to October last year.

The municipality will return later this year, to provide status reports on those priorities - what progress has been made in addressing them - and also to explain the review of the IDP, which is done on an annual basis, until the end of the Council's 5-year term.

The IDP's Key Performance Indicators and their quarterly targets are revised with each year's new Budget, and the public was requested to pay particular attention to this section in the IDP.

Implementation Reports for 2016/17 and 2017/18 are attached to the Draft document, which is available for inspection and comments at the municipal offices and public libraries in all eight towns, as well as a few other points and can be viewed/downloaded on the municipal website www.bnlm.gov.za (under Strategic & Sector Plans).

The public inspection period closes on Monday, 30 April, and residents are urged to provide their input to the Draft 2018/19 IDP and Budget.

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