Council adopted its first long term Asset Plan in June of this year to guide the efficient and effective management of almost a billion dollars in community assets over the next 10 years.

This includes things like buildings, roads, and drainage systems, through to footpaths, bike paths and parks and ovals.

The Asset Plan focuses on four asset classes:

  • Open Space, which covers parks, public open spaces and streetscapes, along with recreational, leisure and community facilities.
  • Drainage, which covers underground drainage pipes and drainage pits that manage stormwater flow.
  • Transport, which covers public roads, footpaths, kerbs, carparks and bridges.
  • Buildings, which covers building assets, ranging from sporting and community facilities through to recreational facilities and public toilets.

You can view the Asset Plan here.

The document was shaped by community feedback, with a dedicated conversation earlier this year that sought to identify areas for improvements the community would like Council to address.

We asked you to think about the types of assets you use – specifically whether there's enough of them, your thoughts on their quality and condition, and whether they are accessible, and fit for purpose.

The key things you told us included a desire for:

  • More open space and recreation assets, with a focus on better maintenance and renewal of current assets, more lighting, shade and trees.
  • More bike and footpaths, with a focus on better maintenance and renewal of current paths, as well as better connections and integrations between paths.
  • Better maintenance and renewal of road and lane way surfaces.
  • More regular cleaning of stormwater drains, pit and gutters, and improved irrigation at some parks and sports fields, to reduce flooding and pooling of water after heavy rain
  • Better management and renewal of buildings and facilities to support community activities, as well as calls for increasing size and access to some smaller libraries.

These key themes are also largely reflected in feedback we have received on other projects and activities including the Council Plan, Budget, Financial Plan, and specifically the Annual Community Satisfaction Survey, particularly in relation to the transport network..

We’ve also been engaging with a dedicated working group to better understand what we have been hearing from the community.

Two workshops have been hosted to date: the first of which provided background information and presentations on asset classes and why we need an Asset Plan.

The second provided opportunity for the Group to ask questions directly of a panel of officers to further clarify any outstanding questions they might have on Asset classes, Capital Works and Finance.

The development of the 10-year Asset Plan is a requirement under the Local Government Act 2020 to support the implementation of the Community Plan Vision and Council Plan Objectives.

Given the importance of this document, Council intends to further review and update the adopted Plan over the coming year, with further input from the community and our Asset Plan Working Group, to further refine the document.

This will also include a review of some asset categories to better define the relationship between existing asset conditions and desired conditions and service levels.