The YourSay Orange community engagement website, on which Lauren1235 was one of the first people to post, is an online forum asking for residents' input on how the city's future will be shaped under the new council term.

The website is part of council's community engagement program which will help develop the city's Community Strategic Plan, to be tabled for adoption with the incoming council in June.

The CSP is the highest level of strategic planning undertaken by a council and is part of its Integrated Planning and Reporting requirements.

The CSP captures the views of the community to provide a blueprint for Orange for the next four years. The theme for the CSP engagement is Future Orange: adapt, protect, advance.

Mayor Reg Kidd said the CSP was about exploring what sort of place the community wants to live, work and play in.

"What do you love about Orange? What can we do better? What would you change? What do you wish was here? We want to know," Cr Kidd said.

"In an ever-changing world we need to be adaptable, flexible and ready to meet challenges."

"We need to protect what is great about Orange; that's the environment and heritage but it's also about preserving the sense of community that makes Orange a place where people want to live and work.

"We also need to be ambitious, which doesn't mean growth at any cost but understanding that we need to keep creating opportunities for the next generation."

Cr Kidd said the Future Orange engagement would drive what Council delivers for the community.

The last time OCC staged a community-wide conversation about the city's future was in 2017 and a call to develop sport and recreation facilities topped the list. Also a priority were protecting the environment and enhancing parks and open spaces.

Now, four years later, Council has delivered a cricket centre of excellence, advanced the $25 million sports precinct, continued to develop the aquatic centre and delivered playgrounds across the city. Cr Kidd is urging everyone to have their say and is encouraging community groups and organisations to send in their plans so they can be incorporated in the process.

Council is also writing to community groups to invite them to submit their plans and ideas. Beginning in February 2022, a series of face-to-face opportunities and engagement forums will be advertised. The YourSay site can be found at yoursay.orange.nsw.gov.au/future-orange

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