Council Plan

The Council Plan represents a four-year road map for the Council and describes the key services and priorities that Council will focus on between 2021 and 2025.

A key consideration in developing this new Council Plan is a new Community Vision, which captures the long term goals and aspirations of the community for Baw Baw Shire.

The Council Plan provides a guide to our strategic direction, objectives and key strategies for the new four years and the role that Council plays in achieving the Community Vision.

These are important strategic plans to help plan for the future of the Shire. 

You can access these key documents and more information below:

Our Strategic Direction

Our key focus over the next four years is to ready the shire for the future and support community quality of life as we grow.

The Objectives

The three objectives of the Council Plan respond directly to the Community Vision. The objectives are:

  • A sustainable shire.
  • A healthy community.
  • A thriving community. 

Our Community Vision

The Community Vision describes the community’s aspirations for the future (20-30 years) of the Shire. Together, the vision and objectives will drive Council’s planning, major projects and service delivery over the four years 2021 – 2025.  

Our Community Vision

  • Sustainable towns and villages that continue to benefit from our beautiful rural and natural environment.
  • Healthy and well people, living in safe, connected communities and healthy environments.
  • Thriving, diverse and resilient communities. 

The Strategies

  1. Planning for a sustainable, healthy and thriving Baw Baw Shire.
  2. Providing community infrastructure, services and facilities which support sustainable communities and are responsive to changing needs.
  3. Advocating for strategic priorities and those services and facilities needed by the community.
  4. Sustainably protecting and managing the natural environment, and agricultural land.
  5. Supporting community health, safety, and wellbeing, including mental health.
  6. Supporting community connectivity, diversity, inclusion and reconciliation.
  7. Creating environments that support a diversity of sports and recreation opportunities and walkable communities across the shire.
  8. Responding to and readying for climate change, emergency events, disruption, and transition.
  9. Enabling a strong local economy, through support for business and innovation, and local access to skills development and jobs.
  10. Supporting community arts and events to create vibrancy and attract people to live work and play in Baw Baw.
  11. Improving local transport networks and advocating for improvements for roads and public transport for residents across the shire.

Council will identify annual initiatives which will be included in the Annual Budget. 

The Challenges Ahead

One of the most significant challenges we face in Baw Baw Shire is the growth of the community particularly along the highway corridor towns such as Longwarry, Drouin, Warragul, Yarragon and Trafalgar. Baw Baw remains one of the fastest-growing municipalities in the state, with forecasts estimating our population to be approximately 84,000 in the Shire by 2041, with an additional 30,000 new residents.

There are also other challenges:

  • Council’s ability to raise funds for services and infrastructure to meet the needs of the community and keep up with our growth. This includes Council services, and also those of other providers, such as utilities like communications, and schools and health services.
  • We also expect a changing community demographic and growth as new residents, state-wide, are making their way to rural areas through the recent COVID-19 pandemic and more opportunities for remote working.
  • Through the engagement process in developing the Community Vision and Council Plan, our community were focusing on the health and wellbeing of the community, particularly mental health as the community responds and recovers from COVID-19.
  • Availability and access to business and employment, education and skills development for all residents to enable them to stay and prosper in the local community.
  • And also significantly, how we as a community prepare for significant disruption and transition, with changing technology, social and workplace norms, changes in industries and climate change.

These all bring both opportunities and challenges for our community, and for Council as we plan for those new residents and the services, facilities and infrastructure they will need in the next four years and beyond.

Reporting our Performance

Council regularly reports its performance in its quarterly reports, Annual Report and Performance Statements, which are published to Council’s website.

Council also publishes its annual performance against the Local Government Performance Reporting Framework on the State Government Know Your Council website. 

 

  

Accessible Documents

Whilst every effort has been made to ensure our documents are accessible and compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, some documents cannot be converted to completely adhere to these guidelines. This may include documents that were not created by Council or directly supplied to Council in an electronic format, as well as any documents that are subject to frequent and substantial changes.

If you wish to access Council documents that are not AA Accessible, or that are not available, on this website, you can contact our Community Information and Service team by phone on 5624 2411, send an online enquiry, or visit a Customer Service Centre for further assistance.

Additionally, some pages on this website include hyperlinks to external/other sites. Council does not accept responsibility or liability for the contents of any information or documents provided by outside sites through these links, nor does it assume any legal responsibility for degree of accessibility or the accuracy, completeness, and usefulness of the information in the links.

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