Banyule Futures is about working with the community to plan for the next four years and beyond.

From April to December 2024, we heard from 970 community members about local priorities, concerns, health and wellbeing. We've now drafted key documents that show what we are focusing on:

• The Banyule Plan 2025–2029 and Delivery Plan, which include the Health and Wellbeing Plan, outline key initiatives and services that Council will deliver to bring us closer to Banyule's Community Vision 2041.
• The Revenue and Rating Plan outlines how Council will generate income to build the Budget and deliver the Banyule Plan.
• The Financial Plan establishes investment and spending thresholds to ensure that we have sufficient funding to maintain our assets and deliver the services the Banyule community needs.
• The Budget outlines where Council money comes from including rates, fees and charges, grants and other revenue, and embeds the financial management and strategic actions from our Financial Plan.
• The Asset Plan outlines how Council will take care of assets such as roads, footpaths, bridges, stormwater drainage, buildings and parks, which are valued at over $1,282 billion.

Go to the 'Feedback' tab to tell us what you think and go in the draw for one of 20 x $25 gift cards.

Banyule Plan 2025-29

The draft Banyule Plan 2025-29 is Council’s main strategic document, outlining priorities and focus areas for the next four years. This Plan is guided by and includes Banyule’s Community Vision 2041. It also shows how Council will work in partnership with the community, agencies and other key stakeholders to achieve the Vision. It helps Council to focus on what really matters to the community and it measures our success.

Council's Key Initiatives

Since being elected, the Mayor and councillors have been combining what has been shared from the community together with ongoing feedback and projects already underway. The entire Banyule Plan aims to respond to this as well as 7 key initiatives that show Council's focus over the next four years.

Banyule Delivery Plan

The draft Banyule Delivery Plan 2025-2029 details the initiatives and services Council will deliver based on the priority themes in the Community Vision. It addresses ThinkTank priorities and aligns with existing key strategic planning documents, policies and plans in the Banyule Plan 2025–2029 (the Banyule Plan). The Banyule Delivery Plan specifically responds to Banyule’s Health and Wellbeing Priorities for 2025–29 and the Banyule’s response to climate change.

Health and Wellbeing Plan

The Health and Wellbeing Plan addresses community health needs, as outlined in the main goals and priorities for improving public health and wellbeing in Banyule.

Banyule Council will integrate its Health and Wellbeing Plan into the Banyule Plan 2025-2029. This integrated approach ensures that health and wellbeing are prioritised in all of Council's activities, leading to greater positive impact. The documents also respond to the requirements under the Gender Equality Act 2020 and the Climate Change Act 2017.

The Plan has been created using reliable state-level and local evidence, including local health surveys and community feedback. It focuses on five priorities that will best position Council and our partners to deliver actions that improve health and wellbeing outcomes for everyone.

Go to the 'Feedback' tab to tell us what you think and go in the draw for one of 20 x $25 gift cards.

Budget

The Banyule community played a crucial role in shaping the draft Budget 2025-2029 through Banyule Futures community engagement, which you can read more about on this page. Both the Capital Works Program and Initiatives Program were shaped by this engagement.

In response to what we heard, Council continues to focused on maintaining services and reducing debt amid ongoing inflation and high demand for services like food relief. Our plan is to avoid new loans and reduce borrowings over the budget period.

To fund infrastructure and services, we are diversifying revenue streams, increasing some user fees and seeking more state and federal grants. Rates will increase by 3% for 2025/26, staying within the Victorian Government's rate cap.

Council is also proposing to invest in capital works, with $53.90 million allocated for projects like the Watsonia Town Square and park upgrades.

Overall, Banyule remains financially secure and committed to meeting community needs.

Financial Plan

The draft 10-year Financial Plan 2025-35 helps to ensure that Council remains sustainable.

It supports the achievement of the Community Vision 2041 and establishes investment and spending thresholds to ensure that we have sufficient funding to maintain our assets and deliver the services the Banyule community needs.

Without this approach to financial management, it would be difficult for Council to deliver the Banyule that community have told us you want to see.

All efforts to manage Council's finances are with a view to delivering Banyule's Community Vision 2041 and Banyule Plan.

Revenue and Rating Plan

The draft Revenue and Rating Plan 2025-29 outlines how Council will generate income to build our Budget and deliver the Banyule Plan. It considers:

• how we generate income through rates
• service charges and rates applied on services such as waste and recycling
• fees and charges for services and programs
• contributions from developers
• revenue generated from Council assets
• grants from other governments.

Go to the 'Feedback' tab to tell us what you think and go in the draw for one of 20 x $25 gift cards.

Asset Plan

The draft Asset Plan 2025-35 helps Banyule Council manage its infrastructure sustainably. It outlines how Council will take care of assets such as roads, footpaths, bridges, stormwater drainage, buildings and parks, which are valued at over $1.28 billion.

The Plan aims to:

• show Council's responsible management of its assets
• demonstrate how this management meets Council's and the community's Community Vision 2041
• assess the current condition of assets and predict their state in 10 years' time
• minimise the risk of asset failure
• optimise costs over the asset lifecycle and support long-term financial planning.

The Plan also responds to the following priorities recommended to Council by the Banyule Community ThinkTank in December 2024.

• Invest into existing assets and facilities so that they are safe, accessible and can be fully utilised.
• Consider the needs of Banyule’s changing and increasing population when planning for infrastructure.
• Equitably distribute and upgrade assets and facilities when planning.
• Maintain existing assets to make sure they are adaptable and fit for purpose for multiple community needs.

Banyule's suburbs and people are diverse and have their own character, needs and priorities.

Click on your precinct in the map below to see some of the exciting projects planned for the place you live over the next four years.

What we did

A broad, Banyule-wide engagement program took place from 29 April to 23 June 2024. As part of Council’s place-based approach to planning, the engagement was organised around and conducted within Banyule’s seven precincts.

970 people participated in variety of engagement activities including:

• 590 people completed our precinct-level surveys
• 290 people visited one of our 10 pop-up conversations across Banyule
• 90 people participated in one of our 4 Community Vision workshops and focus group.

Engagement questions related directly to precinct-specific data taken from Living in Place and Health and Wellbeing survey data collected from 1,345 survey participants in 2023.

The Process

We did our research and then checked in with the community on our findings. You told us your thoughts on precinct priorities, concerns and projects and we took this to the ThinkTank for further consideration and deliberation. Go to the ThinkTank page to find out more about the work of the ThinkTank.

Surveys and pop-up conversations

To read about what we heard during the surveys and pop-up conversations, take a look at the broad engagement findings report. While this report also includes information by precinct, you can also view the precinct findings by going to the 'Banyule precincts' tab on this page and clicking your precinct on the map.

Otherwise, take a look at the high level findings below.

Community Vision workshops

The purpose of the focus group and three workshops was to gather community members’ thoughts on whether the descriptions under each of the six Vision themes continue to reflect where the community wants to be in 2041.  Attendees received a participant pack and were asked to consider the following question for each of the theme descriptions:

Should anything be added to strengthen the theme description or reflect changes since it was written in 2021?

A detailed summary of what we heard about the six themes can be found in the findings report. A number of common ideas came up across most or all of the themes discussed.