Greater Bendigo City Council has formally adopted the its new Council Plan (Mir Wimbul) 2021-2025, including new community vision and values, and Greater Bendigo Health and Wellbeing Plan and 10-year Financial Plan.
Greater Bendigo's new community vision is: Greater Bendigo celebrates our diverse community. We are welcoming, sustainable and prosperous. Walking hand in hand with the traditional custodians of this land. Building on our rich heritage for a bright and happy future.
Five supporting values that underpin the vision have also been adopted - transparency, sustainability, inclusion, innovation and equity.
The Council Plan includes the following goals and outcomes:
- Lead and govern for all - A community that works together to achieve our shared vision.
- Healthy, liveable spaces and places - A community where all people can live healthy, safe, harmonious lives in attractive and accessible settings
- Strong, inclusive and sustainable economy - An inclusive, sustainable and prosperous community where all people can thrive
- Aboriginal reconciliation - A community that recognises and respects Aboriginal people and culture and enables the self-determination of Traditional Owners
- A climate-resilient built and natural environment - A community featuring healthy regional landscapes and buildings that are developed with the changing climate and earth's resources in mind
- A vibrant, creative community - A community that inspires a culture of creativity, activates its spaces, nurtures and supports talent, champions inclusion and access, and shows the world
- A safe, welcoming and fair community - A community where people are respected, safe to participate in all aspects of community life and have equitable access to the resources they need
By endorsing the Council Plan and its community vision, values, goals and outcomes, the document guides the implementation of all other strategic documents, which must work towards delivering on the broad objectives of the Council Plan.
The Greater Bendigo Public Health and Wellbeing Plan will be branded Healthy Greater Bendigo 2021-2025. It focuses on five key areas - Healthy and well; Safe and secure; Able to participate; Connected to culture and community; and Liveable.
The plan must also consider the short- and long-term impacts of climate change on health and wellbeing, and incorporate actions focused on preventing and responding to family violence.
It is a whole-of-community plan that was developed with the support of partner agencies that influence community health and wellbeing.
The new 10-year Financial Plan is the first for Council, delivered under the new Local Government Act 2020. It has been developed using the majority of the current 2021/2022 Budget as the base year and key focus areas of the plan include:
- Fair and affordable revenue mechanisms with stability in rate increases and rates concentration
- Maintaining sufficient working capital (liquidity) to meet our financial obligations
- The allocation of increased funding to meet capital renewal obligations
- Ensuring that borrowings meet targets for indebtedness
- The improvement in underlying operational surplus throughout the life of the Financial Plan
Mayor Cr Dr Jennifer Alden thanked the community for their input into this important strategic planning process, which had been promoted as Imagine Greater Bendigo.
"These are guiding documents that are critical to the continued success of our community and will be what Council aligns its future decision making with," Cr Alden said.
"They set the foundation that leads to investment in new infrastructure, programs and initiatives that will deliver on our new community vision.
"I acknowledge the great effort by residents to feed into this process, in particular I thank those who joined the community panel process in May to help develop the community vision, values and shape the Council Plan.
"We are proud that the Council Plan has a dual name, Mir Wimbul, meaning 'community protocol' in the language of the Dja Dja Wurrung. It is another step on our reconciliation journey and delivering on our new community vision to walk hand in hand with Traditional Custodians of the land.
"Council looks forward continuing its work under the guidance of these strategic documents."
