Yarra Ranges Council and Mornington Peninsula Shire are seeking a new 'peri-regional' status from the State Government, which would unlock funding opportunities for community projects.
Yarra Ranges Council endorsed its position to advocate to State Government for peri-regional status at last night's Council Meeting.
Council has written to the State Government and shared a report commissioned in partnership with Mornington Peninsula Shire, which provides the evidence and analysis underpinning their advocacy for a new status, peri-regional.
This new status would allow both Councils to retain their metropolitan classification while gaining access to regional funding programs to better support their outer, more-regional communities.
Yarra Ranges Mayor, Cr Jim Child, said this new status would allow both municipalities to deliver more benefits for their regional communities, and for the state as a whole.
"Really, this is just the inverse of the precedent that's been set by the peri-urban group of councils," Cr Child said.
"We've heard from our residents and local businesses for many years now that the challenges, opportunities and potential of our regional areas need to be better recognised by the State Government. There are funding streams available to support regional communities, but neither Yarra Ranges or Mornington Peninsula have consistent access to these programs, despite having towns that locals would call 'regional'.
"A peri-regional status would unlock our ability to apply for regional funding streams from both State and Federal Governments, creating greater opportunities for our tourism, agricultural and cultural industries in the process.
"Currently, we need to dip into urban funding streams to deliver regional projects. This means that proposals for funding can get knocked back, or have to be creatively delivered, when the simplest answer is a small administrative adjustment by the State, to better recognise our regional areas.
"As a result this leaves us spreading ourselves thin with what we can apply for and puts a handbrake on how much we're able to deliver to our community.
"Our current metropolitan status also has an impact on our local community groups, charities and organisations, who deliver services to our regional areas, rendering them unable to access regional funding programs also.
