Glen Eira Council Plan 2021–2025

The Council Plan responds directly to the vision established by the community through the Glen Eira 2040 Community Vision (Community Vision):

• Our Glen Eira: A thriving and empowered community working together for an inclusive and sustainable community.

The Council Plan also reflects the contributions made by the Glen Eira community throughout an extensive community engagement process.

It is a plan for everyone in the Glen Eira community and considers the needs and aspirations of all people who live, work and play here.

The Council Plan and the supporting Annual Action Plan 2021–2022 were endorsed by Council at a Special Council Meeting on 26 October 2021.

• Glen Eira Council Plan 2021–2025 (PDF 3.6Mb)
• Glen Eira Council Plan — Annual Action Plan 2024–2025 (PDF 1Mb)
• Council Report 26 October 2021 (PDF 38Mb)

What are our priorities?

The Council Plan contains five strategic directions that will guide our efforts between 2021 and 2025, each with a long-term goal:

1. Well informed and transparent decisions and highly valued services
   We build trust through engaging with our community, delivering quality services and making evidence-based decisions.
2. Access to well designed and maintained open spaces and places
   Our public open spaces and places support a healthy and connected community and contribute to a more sustainable and vibrant City.
3. A liveable and well planned City
   Our planning aims to balance population growth with enhancing the unique character and heritage of our City
4. A green and sustainable community
   Our actions and priorities aim to protect our community from the worst impacts of climate change.
5. A healthy, inclusive and resilient community
   We support our residents to be healthy, strong and resilient and will embrace and celebrate our diverse community.

Each strategic direction identifies a number of major initiatives, which are the larger-scale projects that will contribute to the achievement of the outcomes over the next four years.

Some of the major initiatives identified for delivery over the next four years include:

• Invest a minimum of $26.9 million on the acquisition of new public open space
• Complete the redevelopment of the Carnegie Memorial Swimming Pool
• Create a vibrant new destination in Bentleigh through the construction of the ‘Eat-Street’ precinct
• Design and create a new Selwyn Street Cultural Precinct in Elsternwick
• Complete the redevelopment of the Lord Reserve Pavilion in Carnegie
• Deliver a new Bentleigh Library and Youth Hub and a new community hub in Murrumbeena
• Complete a Housing Strategy
• Prepare structure plans and built form frameworks and implement planning controls to provide guidance for development in a number of our activity centres
• Deliver initiatives to ensure Council buildings and infrastructure are powered by 100 per cent renewable energy
• Implement our Urban Forest Strategy
• Deliver a program of community festivals, event and cultural arts programs
• Develop and implement a Community Engagement Strategy
• Deliver a Smart Cities Framework and Implementation Plan

You can see all of the 44 major initiatives identified for delivery during 2021–2025 in the Council Plan.

How do we know if we're on track?

Each strategic direction includes a series of indicators and measures that we will use to measure our progress and monitor our performance.

Each financial year we will also develop an annual action plan to support the delivery of the strategic outcomes, and report to the community on our progress and achievements.

At the end of the four years, we will evaluate the impact our activities have had on progressing the long-term community outcomes established in the Community Vision.

To see all of our commitments and measures for 2023–2024, download the Glen Eira Council Plan — Annual Action Plan 2024–2025 (PDF 1Mb).

To see our performance reports on the action plan see our Quarterly Service Performance Report.

How did we develop the plan?

The Council Plan 2021–2025 has been developed in partnership with the Glen Eira community. It was informed by a community engagement program where we asked the community to ‘Help us create a healthy, connected and thriving Glen Eira’ and by the deliberative process undertaken in developing the Community Vision.

The comprehensive community engagement program brought diverse voices to the table to help shape the direction of the municipality over the next four years. The development of the Council Plan considered the needs of all people who access and experience all neighbourhoods and places within the Glen Eira municipality.

During the first stage of our community engagement in May and June 2021, more than 2,000 people across the municipality told us what was important to them, their families and their businesses through:

• pop-up events
• online surveys
• telephone surveys
• focus groups
• one-on-one discussions
• workshops.

A report on the outcomes of this community engagement program is available in Appendix A — Community Engagement Report.

Following this first stage of community engagement, a draft Council Plan was prepared and endorsed by Council on 10 August 2021 for the purpose of undertaking further community engagement. During our second stage of engagement we asked the community to provide feedback on the draft Council Plan, via a range of online surveys, workshops, one-on-one discussions, and an online question and answer session with the Mayor and Councillors. The Community Vision Deliberative Panel and the Youth Advisory Committee also provide detailed feedback on the draft.

All of the feedback was used to inform a number of changes to the draft, prior to finalising the Council Plan 2021–2025 for adoption by Council on 26 October 2021.

More detail on the different phases involved in developing the Council Plan is available in Appendix B — How was this plan developed?