Cochrane town council has approved its strategic priorities that will largely guide them through the balance of their term.

After a lengthy consultation that included public and staff meetings as well as an online survey through "Let's Talk Cochrane," a few words here and there were changed, but largely much of what they aim to do remains the same. Besides town staff, only 67 residents provided input.

The overarching aims have been organized into four categories and community connectivity was rated as the highest priority by those providing input and centres upon finding multimodal transportation solutions to improve traffic and pedestrian flow through the community.

It's followed by development and planning, community engagement and facilities and services.

The vast majority of those offering input appeared to generally favour the priorities and provided suggestions on how to improve the wording and be more specific on the goals. They also provided a number of comments to provide food for thought.

A large number did not answer whether or not they believe the right direction was being taken or indicated whether they shared council's priorities. Few, though, voiced opposition.

The sampling from the public engagement was small, less than 0.25 per cent of the population, but Councillor Alex Reed believes that should not become the focus, rather it should be how council consulted the public.

It's a whole new approach to developing the strategic priorities for council and it's on this point council appeared to take pride. In the past, it has been developed internally and over the years reached the point where only council and senior managers provided input.

Previously, Mayor Jeff Genung explained the value in expanding the consultation. When he previously sat on council there was more input received from staff to allow for buy-in to the strategy.

"There were at least 50 people in the room and I know that's kind of an extensive touch but it really did get buy-in from everyone. It wasn't just a top-down 'Here's our vision, now go do it'. It was 'What do you think our vision should be? What do you think our priorities should be?'"

Now the document and feedback received will be available on the town website and Devana said a pocket-size printed edition is being considered.