Early planning for the Council 2025/26 Budget is now underway and Yarra Ranges Council want to hear from the community about how it should allocate funds.
It has already heard that the community wants the council to focus on the basics – roads, drainage, waste and so funding for those areas have already been ear-marked.
However, the council provides over 100 services and to assist with planning for our budget ahead we would like to hear from you.
“We recently held several sessions with a dedicated group of community representatives who provided us with detailed feedback about what our priorities should be over the next four years,” Yarra Ranges Mayor Jim Child said.
“This feedback covered some key themes including: cost of living pressures, infrastructure and maintenance, access to services, climate change, improving engagement and transparency, community health and wellbeing, tourism, planning and development to name a few.”
Yarra Ranges is the largest geographic municipality in Victoria – it is three times larger than Singapore. The size of the council, along with rising costs to deliver services and maintain ageing assets makes the task of allocating the council’s funds challenging.
State and federal governments are also facing similar financial constraints, which is resulting in reduced funding to councils to maintain services and infrastructure – and this is expected to continue.
“Setting a Council budget is always a challenging task. We are operating in a post-pandemic world with our community still recovering from its deep impacts, compounded by the lasting effects of several severe weather events across the region,” Cr Child said.
The council is currently reviewing all parts of its organisation to ensure services and infrastructure are delivered for maximum benefit whilst identifying service innovations, operational efficiencies, and savings across many areas.
“As we do this review and build our next budget we would like your input, and to know what is important to you. This will help us prioritise what you value most to our diverse community and 55 townships,” Cr Child said.
Share feedback via shaping.yarraranges.vic.gov.au/council-budget-2025-26 until 15 December.
