The plans, which build on and re-endorse the long-term community vision - Whittlesea 2040: A place for all, were adopted at a Special Council Meeting on Monday 25 October 2021.

The Community Plan incorporates various other Council plans including the Municipal Public Health & Wellbeing Plan, Disability Action Plan and Pandemic Recovery Plan actions into the one overarching document.

Highlights of the plan include a focus on public safety, festivals, events, social connection and sports facilities as well as new and upgraded parks and playgrounds, transport improvements, clean streets and road safety.

Council will be working to make the City of Whittlesea a smart choice for business growth, innovation and investment, enabling opportunities for local work and education.

There will also be an emphasis on waste management, biodiversity and increasing the number of trees.

Financial Plan 2021 - 2031

The Financial Plan 2021-2031 shows how Council will fund these projects and others over the next 10 years. Our overarching approach is to strike the right balance between spending on projects and services for the community and managing our financial reserves long-term to achieve our Whittlesea 2040 vision.

Council will continue to advocate to both the State and Federal governments on behalf of our community for funding that will support key projects integral to the ongoing development of the municipality over the next decade.

Community Feedback

More than 1300 people joined the conversation online and at face-to-face events during February and March to give Council a clear understanding of the community’s priorities and more than 5000 pieces of feedback were considered in the development of the plan

As a result of the feedback, Council made some changes to the original draft Community Plan.

These changes included strengthening the arts and cultural initiatives and adding carers and gender diverse communities as key target populations.

Key initiatives of the Community Plan 2021-2025 include:

• Coordinate recovery efforts across the municipality including COVID-19 safe messaging and mass vaccinations and a grants program to support community service organisations as well as emergency relief
• Establish a Gathering Place to increase connections to culture, heritage, land and healing for Aboriginal people
• Increase the quality, access, safety and amount of public open space in the municipality, including additional dog parks and a local park improvement program
• Design and upgrade local streetscapes and shopping precincts to make it easier to move about, celebrate local culture, heritage and character, and connect people to the natural environment
• As part of COVID recovery, deliver a ‘support local’ campaign and incentive program to support the community and local businesses
• Work with the Victorian Government and key stakeholders to progress planning for key employment precincts such as Epping central, the Beveridge Intermodal Freight Terminal, the Melbourne Food Innovation and Export Hub and the Vearings Road employment precinct
• Deliver key actions from our Rethinking Waste Plan, including introducing residential glass recycling, extending food and garden waste services, protecting the environment from litter and increasing sustainable procurement
• Deliver on our Greening Whittlesea Strategy including increasing tree canopy along main road residential streets and in conservation reserves, park and major facilities
• Improve customer service through investing in technology, systems and Council staff and make it easier for our community to interact with Council
• Maintain strong communications with our community to promote access to services including multilingual, accessible for all and mobile friendly communication and website

Community Plan Action Plan

The Community Plan Action Plan 2021-2022 (Action Plan) sets out the actions Council will focus on delivering in the first year of our Community Plan 2021-2025. We will release an Action Plan for each year of the four-year plan.

The Action Plan outlines the priority actions towards Council’s five goals: a connected community, liveable neighbourhoods, a strong local economy, a sustainable environment and a high-performing organisation.

You can view the final Community Plan 2021-25 and 2021-22 Action Plan and Long-Term Financial Plan 2021-2031 below or by clicking on the links.

The City of Whittlesea’s proposed Community Plan 2021-25 detailing 60 major initiatives for Council to deliver over the next four years has been released for your feedback.

The Plan was drafted using input from various community surveys and was informed by an extensive community consultation program earlier this year.

More than 1300 people joined the conversation online and at face-to-face events during February and March to give us a clear understanding of the community’s priorities.

We are also releasing our proposed 10-year Financial Plan for your feedback. This document details the financial resources needed to fund the projects and initiatives.

The Community Plan incorporates various other Council plans including the Municipal Public Health & Wellbeing Plan, Disability Action Plan and Pandemic Recovery Plan actions into the one overarching document. The Plan and its program of work has been aligned to the goals of Whittlesea 2040.

You can view the Community Plan and the 10-year Financial Plan online and have your say on these as well as provide suggestions before we prepare our 2022-2023 Budget, until 20 September.

Following community feedback, the Community Plan and 10-Year Financial Plan will be refined and is scheduled for adoption in October. The Budget will be prepared early next year.

We are committed to ensuring we are inclusive in our consultation so if you have a particular need to enable you to participate fully, or you have any questions about our next steps, please contact us via email at engagement@whittlesea.vic.gov.au or call us on 9217 2170.

The Council Plan sets the direction for Council to focus its efforts and each year has an action plan that shows what we will do to get to the end goal (Whittlesea 2040).

Last year Council committed $2m to a Community Recovery Fund to help our community recover from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. We wanted to know how you think this money would be best spent to help our community rebuild.

During March, there were a variety of ways we asked our community to contribute to the conversation around the Council Plan 2021-25 and the Community Recovery Fund. Your views are important to us and we want to make sure that you can have a say. We recently released a new Community Engagement Policy which explains a new way of consulting with our community on issues of importance, like the Community Plan.

A proposed Community Plan was presented to Council on Monday 2 August and is now available for community feedback.

We are committed to ensuring we are inclusive in our consultation so if you have a particular need to enable you to participate fully, or you have any questions about our next steps, please contact us via email at engagement@whittlesea.vic.gov.au or call us on 9217 2170.