Whittlesea council announced this week it has adopted its two strategic plans after extensive community consultation.
The Council Plan 2021-25 and the Long-term Financial Plan 2021-2031, were adopted at a special council meeting earlier this week.
Council also adopted its Community Plan Action Plan for 2021-2022.
Various other council plans are included in the Community Plan, including the Municipal Public Health & Wellbeing Plan, Disability Action Plan and Pandemic Recovery Plan.
Chair administrator Lydia Wilson said the plans would help guide council’s efforts over the coming years.
“The Council Plan and Long-Term Financial Plan set the strategic direction for how council will invest its time, efforts and spending and the action plan provides the detail for the first year,” she said.
The plan focuses on public events and social connection, as well as public safety.
Residents can expect new and upgraded parks and playgrounds, transport improvements, clean streets and a focus on road safety, as well as on environmental developments.
Local businesses can expect a boost from the council, enabling opportunities for local work and education.
The financial plan shows how these projects will be funded over the next 10 years.
Ms Wilson said it was important to ensure these strategic documents were reflective of the community’s priorities.
“We embarked on a large community consultation program over the course of this year to make [sure] we were in alignment with our community,” she said.
More than 1300 people gave feedback online and at face-to-face events during February and March and more than 5000 pieces of feedback were considered in the development of the plan.
As a result of the feedback, changes were made to the original draft community plan, which included strengthening the arts and cultural initiatives and adding carers and gender diverse communities as key target populations.
You can view the final Community Plan 2021-25 and 2021-22 Action Plan and Long- Term Financial Plan 2021-2031 on Whittlesea’s website: www.whittlesea.vic.gov.au/
