A clear 2040 Vision for the Shire

AWAITING the appointment of the new council, the Golden Plains Shire 2040 Community Vision is ready for adoption after months of consultation and fine tuning the final draft.

Developed by the Community Vision 2040 Reference Group in partnership with the council and the wider community, the document aims to reflect the region’s hopes, aspirations and priorities for the 20 years to come.

Stuart McCallum was part of the reference group and said the document tried to incorporate a range of ages, genders, nationalities and geographical locations to obtain a wide spread of opinions.

“We ended up with eight people from the community and three Shire staff,” he said.

“This Vision provides a structure that is easy to follow and is representative of the whole community.

“If the community want things done they will need to point to this Vision and say this is what you said you’d do.”

 

What is the 2040 Vision?

In addition to being a tool to uncover the Shire’s residents’ needs and expectations, the 2040 Vision will also inform future decision making within the council.

Mr McCallum said it’s a way for the community to hold their elected representatives accountable because legally it must inform future council plans.

“The Vision sits on top of the council plan and which can’t include anything that isn’t covered by this vision,” he said.

“It’s pretty powerful, it’s a matter for the community and the new council to make sure these things actually happen.

“The vision is broad enough that it covers matters of resilience … so it will be important for how we handle anything like bushfires, droughts or famine and plague in the future.”

As part of the consultation process, over 500 people took part in the Community Vision 2040 survey, the findings of which informed the reference group to create a structure for the vision based on four main pillars of community, liveability, sustainability and prosperity.

Speaking before caretaker period began, Golden Plains Shire mayor Cr Owen Sharkey acknowledged the hard work of the reference group in devising a vision that best fits the region.

“From the survey questions, to the identifying of key themes and right through to the development of the draft document, this project has been led by the fantastic and committed members of our Community Vision 2040 Reference Group,” he said.

“The draft Golden Plains Shire Community Vision 2040 is a unique whole-of-community plan that aims to reflect residents’ aspirations about the future of our Shire and guide decision-making toward this vision.

“Long-term strategic planning is vital to our community, and this project has been an important one not only for residents and our current council, but certainly for the next council and all future ones.”

Another member from the reference group Lindy Allinson added, “usually whenever a Shire sends out a survey, they usually get a really low percentage of reply but this time was positive.

“Having locals from each community across the Shire as representatives going out into their communities, spreading the information and bringing it back ensured the answers were really honest.”

On the other hand, while Mr McCallum acknowledged significant community consultation had been undertaken, he said it could always have been improved upon.

“It could’ve been more robust if we had have had stronger community engagement,” he said.

“They hadn’t had much engagement from young people so they visited school to get their responses …. it’s going to be their world by the time we get to 2040 after all.

“Some of the surveys the council sent out were a little bit lame, we undertook some further consultation to get a little deeper and to make it as efficient and wide reaching as possible.”

 

What are residents hopes for 2040?

While community members voiced their expectations that the Shire continue in its conservation, sustainability and prosperity work in the municipality, many also stressed their opposition against huge developments.

During consultation, Mr McCallum said they discovered the wider community want adequate facilities and welcome new people in the Shire, but not over development.

“They value the natural environment really strongly, ideas about putting heavy truck bypasses through the Bannockburn bush or farming land wouldn’t go down very well,” he said.

Ms Allinson added, “Decentralisation was a focus, Bannockburn has become seen as the hub of the Shire which is really off putting to those living on the border of other shires because they are far away.”

“Arts and culture was another thing that came up, particularly right now with COVID and mental health problems, it’s a great way to bring tourists in and for empowering artists in the region.

“Protecting the unique character of the Golden Plains Shire was one of the main drivers guiding the vision because people are worried that their quality of life will be trodden on by people simply wanting to fill their pockets.”

 

Will the Vision be adopted by council?

At its 25 August meeting, the Golden Plains Shire council received the final draft of the Community Vision and while thanking the reference group for their work, referred it to the next council for adoption.

Although majority of the council were supportive of the proposed vision, Cr David Evans raised concerns about the relativity of the Vision as it related to Bannockburn.

“At the last meeting, one of the councillors noted that this Vision wasn’t suitable for Bannockburn,” Ms Allinson said.

“He noted that the council would have to fiddle around with it further.

“Another councillor reminded him that this wasn’t their paper to fiddle around with and that it had been created for the people by the people, they could either accept it or not.”

However, Mr McCallum said he was certain the vision would pass through the next council as it currently stands.

“It’s been tentatively approved by the old council and although it will have to go through another stage for the new council to implement it, it’s simply procedural.”

“It’s clear that communities need a mechanism for keeping councils honest and working in the broader community interests rather than vested interests.

“People will now have a way of holding council to account and have provided them with a clear set of expectations.”

The Draft Golden Plains Shire Community Vision 2040 is now available on Council’s website at goldenplains.vic.gov.au.