After several months of consultation with key stakeholders including community members, Councillors and staff, Hobsons Bay's draft Council Plan 2025-29 is nearly ready.
Initial community consultation began in May with in-person drop-in sessions and an online survey giving an avenue for people to share their initial thoughts on what they think the plan should include.
Community representative workshops took place in the following weeks, as well as Councillor and staff sessions.
More than 1300 people participated in the consultation process.
Through this engagement, priorities have emerged, showing what the community wants to see in the plan to guide Council for the next four years.
Some of the community's top priorities heard through the consultation process included:
- health and wellbeing community services, including community safety
- services for children, youth, families, older people and people living with a disability
- sports and recreation facilities
- public amenity, dumped rubbish, litter and roadside cleaning
- urban planning and development controls and enforcement.
The significant consultation is being finalised into a draft Council Plan, which will be available for the community to review and have its say on in late October.
The Municipal Health and Wellbeing Plan, and updates to the long-term financial and assets plans will also be available at that time.
Council Plan is a key strategic document that helps Council decide how to prioritise investments and deliver services that meet the changing needs of the community, with a new plan every four years.
The comprehensive community engagement report can be found at participate.hobsonsbay.vic.gov.au/councilplan2025
Quotes attributable to Hobsons Bay Mayor Daria Kellander:
"We have had a thorough and extensive consultation period over the last few months to ensure our plan is reflective of what our community wants.
"It is exciting to be close to releasing the draft plan, where the community can take a look and let us know if we got it right.
"The plan is a crucial piece of work to guide us for the next four years, to make decisions based on the wants and needs of our community."
