by Jackson Russell
LOCALS in Romsey and Lancefield can now have their say on which local projects they want to see get up as voting opens on Pick My Project funding.
A dozen projects from Lancefield and Romsey have advanced to the voting stage and will be seeking community support.
Seven projects from Romsey will be able to be voted on, including the climbing forest stage of the Romsey Ecotherapy Park.
Romsey Region Business and Tourism Association (RRBATA) president and Romsey Ecotherapy Park committee member Jenny Stillman said the climbing forest is the next logical step in the park’s development.
“The reason we’ve gone with this is we have a nice open space where the climbing forest would go and it would tack on nicely to the existing part of the park,” she said.
The climbing forest is essentially a three metre high ropes course connected by timber poles and is targeted towards older children and adults alike.
“It will also be the biggest of its type in the Macedon Ranges… bigger kids and adults will come over for this thing so it gets people into the town too,” Ms Stillman added.
“We’re very optimistic that the community will climb onto the climbing forest and vote for it.”
Other projects in Romsey available for voting are an electronic scoreboard for Romsey Park, Feed It Forward: A Generosity Food Movement, a toilet upgrade for the Romsey Mechanics Institute, Romsey Community Social Enterprise, Trading Post Foodbank and Community Garden, Romsey Horse Welfare Community Education Program, and Tiny House Macedon Ranges.
Lancefield has five projects up for voting, a lighting upgrade for Lancefield Park, a community footpath linking Lancefield, an outdoor area for Lancefield Cricket Club, the Lancefield School and Community Garden Project, and an upgrade for Lancefield Playgroup’s outdoor space.
Voters can visit the Pick My Project website (pickmyproject.vic.gov.au) to register and select their local community by searching for their street address or suburb, or by dropping a pin on the map.
Any Victorian resident aged 16 and over can register and vote on any project within their local community.
For regional areas such as the Macedon Ranges, residents will be able to choose from project ideas located within 50km from their location.
Half of the $30 million in funding will be distributed across nine regional partnership areas.
Project ideas with the most votes in each area will get the opportunity to enter into a funding agreement for their project, with between $20,000 and $200,000 available for each project idea.
Voting is open until 5pm, Monday, September 17. For more information, visit pickmyproject.vic.gov.au
