Council Plan and Community Vision

The Community Vision describes the community’s aspirations for the future (20-30 years) of the Shire. Together, the vision and objectives will drive Council’s planning, major projects and service delivery over the four years 2021 – 2025.  

1. Planning for a sustainable, healthy and thriving Baw Baw Shire.
2. Providing community infrastructure, services and facilities which support sustainable communities and are responsive to changing needs.
3. Advocating for strategic priorities and those services and facilities needed by the community.
4. Sustainably protecting and managing the natural environment, and agricultural land.
5. Supporting community health, safety, and wellbeing, including mental health.
6. Supporting community connectivity, diversity, inclusion and reconciliation.
7. Creating environments that support a diversity of sports and recreation opportunities and walkable communities across the shire.
8. Responding to and readying for climate change, emergency events, disruption, and transition.
9. Enabling a strong local economy, through support for business and innovation, and local access to skills development and jobs.
10. Supporting community arts and events to create vibrancy and attract people to live work and play in Baw Baw.
11. Improving local transport networks and advocating for improvements for roads and public transport for residents across the shire.

Council will identify annual initiatives which will be included in the Annual Budget. 

There are also other challenges:

• Council’s ability to raise funds for services and infrastructure to meet the needs of the community and keep up with our growth. This includes Council services, and also those of other providers, such as utilities like communications, and schools and health services.
• We also expect a changing community demographic and growth as new residents, state-wide, are making their way to rural areas through the recent COVID-19 pandemic and more opportunities for remote working.
• Through the engagement process in developing the Community Vision and Council Plan, our community were focusing on the health and wellbeing of the community, particularly mental health as the community responds and recovers from COVID-19.
• Availability and access to business and employment, education and skills development for all residents to enable them to stay and prosper in the local community.
• And also significantly, how we as a community prepare for significant disruption and transition, with changing technology, social and workplace norms, changes in industries and climate change.

These all bring both opportunities and challenges for our community, and for Council as we plan for those new residents and the services, facilities and infrastructure they will need in the next four years and beyond.

Council also publishes its annual performance against the Local Government Performance Reporting Framework on the State Government Know Your Council website. 

• Implement the Environmental Sustainability Strategy and corresponding two-year Action Plan.
• Identification and assessment of significant trees for the development of a Significant Tree Register. The Register will be considered for future protection amendments in the Baw Baw Planning Scheme. 
• Prepare for the introduction of Food Organics and Green Organics (FOGO) collection and investigate options for separate glass collection in Council’s kerbside waste services.
• Develop and implement a Carbon Emissions Reduction Plan.
• Develop a Circular Economy Plan for Council consideration and implementation.

Additional initiatives to further enable Council to support Sustainable, Healthy, Thriving:

• Development and delivery of an internal Future Ready Baw Baw program, to meet the future needs of the community. Focused on Information Technology (IT), Services, Workplaces, and People. 
• Develop a Depot Strategy to ensure Council can continue to conduct works and deliver services that meet the needs of the community into the future.