Given many of these documents were originally endorsed in 2021 as 10-year plans, the aim of this process is not necessarily to overhaul the existing documents created, rather review them with fresh eyes and consider any timely updates in line with changing objectives or expectations. The exception to this is the Revenue and Rating Plan, which is a five-year plan.

The look and feel of all documents will be refreshed, and the substance within each will be reviewed and revised where necessary, in consideration of Council and community feedback.

Additionally, the integration of the Municipal Health and Wellbeing Plan, and the Disability Action Plan, will result in additions to the Council Plan, meaning it may look different than before.

Alongside internal Council feedback and feedback from external stakeholders (e.g. health organisations, relevant to the Municipal Health and Wellbeing Plan or Disability Action Plan), community feedback will help to inform the negotiable aspects of these key documents.

What is negotiable is different for each document. For example: for the Council Plan, feedback may help inform Council's strategic objectives. For the Asset Plan, much of this document will be informed by subject matter experts and specialist advice, though community sentiments on how we are managing existing assets/which assets we should be prioritising into the future may assist in informing this Plan.

Under the Local Government Act, there are certain elements that Council is legislatively required to include and address in several of the documents.

For example, under the Act, the Council Plan must include the strategic direction of the Council, strategic objectives for achieving the strategic direction. These elements are non-negotiable.

We will aim to provide community feedback summaries at key points throughout this process, clearly demonstrating key feedback themes received and how these may have informed changes to the key documents.

The Community Assembly is a community representative group of Macedon Ranges ratepayers - reflecting a range of demographics such as age, gender and Ward location - independently selected and brought together over a number of independently facilitated in-person sessions, to deliberate on the key documents and provide feedback.

This feedback - alongside the broader community feedback - will help to inform the revised documents.

A core group of 45 Community Assembly members were selected, through an expressions of interest process facilitated by over 12,000 invitations being sent across the shire in randomly selected rates notices. Others may be potentially called on to substitute into the process where appropriate, if for example, those originally selected are ultimately unavailable and certain demographics are underrepresented as a result.

The invitation, registration and selection processes were facilitated independently from Council, to support transparency and eliminate any perceived biases.

An independent facilitator will run four in-person sessions with Community Assembly members in March-April 2025, working in partnership with Council.

Rather than focusing on specific projects or initiatives to fund through this process, Community Assembly members will be asked to reflect and input into the broader Plans that help determine what Council prioritises.

Yes - because the Community Assembly process involves deliberative engagement and collective discussions in person, Community Assembly members are very welcome to still provide their own individual reflections and feedback through the online surveys on this Your Say page.

Yes - providing personal details such as your full name, email address and demographic information are optional. Providing this information will help us to keep you informed throughout the process and will also help us to obtain demographic-based trends on feedback themes - your personal details will not be directly attributed next to your individual response in any public summary of feedback.

More information about the information we are collecting can be found within the Privacy Collection Notice at the beginning of any survey through this Your Say platform.