At the Council Meeting on Tuesday 17 June 2025, Council adopted the 2025-29 Council Plan, Community Vision 2025 Reflection and Update Addendum and 2025-26 to 2034-35 Financial Plan after a comprehensive community engagement process.

Purpose of the consultation

The strategic plans which are legislatively required within the Local Government Act 2020 to be reviewed and developed using a deliberative engagement approach are:

• Community Vision  
• Council Plan  
• Long Term Financial Plan

Yarra’s Community Engagement Policy outlines our commitments that reference the principles included in the Act and provides guidance on deliberative engagement in practice.  

The engagement approach that has been undertaken included the following stages:

• Stage 1: Social Research and broad community engagement via Your Say Yarra online engagement platform and in-person community pop ups – captured both a baseline understanding from a representative sample and a broad understanding of our community’s expectations and priorities for Yarra.
• Stage 2: Deliberative process – a representative community working group met four times to consider specific issues and provide recommendations for Council’s consideration.
• Stage 3: Check-in on draft Plans – this involved a two-part approach where the draft Council Plan, Community Vision Reflection and Update and draft Financial Plan was made available to the broader community for a check-in. This will be followed by a check-in of the draft Asset Plan, draft Community Infrastructure Plan and draft Municipal Public and Health and Wellbeing Plan later this year. This final stage took place from Thursday 24 April 2025 to 5pm Friday 23 May 2025.

You can learn more about the first two stages of engagement using this link.

What did we ask?

Do you have any comments on the draft Council Plan, Community Vision Reflection and Update or draft Financial Plan?

What we heard and how it influenced the final decision?

In line with the feedback we received on the draft, Council have added in an additional section to the Council Plan envisioning “What Yarra will look and feel like in 2029”. This section addresses includes:

• A goal to be better equipped for a future where we continue the tradition of being a place where everyone can feel included in our vibrant community.
• A goal to create a future where our economy is thriving and our creativity is flourishing, in a built and natural environment that is adaptable, resilient and able to thrive in the changing climate.
• A goal to develop a future where the community and Council are in partnership with each other

These goals all work in tandem to create a future where we can all enjoy living, working and playing in this beautiful City together.

This section of the Council Plan also discusses how it will interconnect with our existing and future policies, plans and strategies including:

• Climate Emergency Plan
• Transport Strategy and Action Plan
• Access and Inclusion Policy
• Ageing Well Policy
• LGBTIQA+ Policy
• Multicultural Partnership Policy
• Yana Ngargna Policy
• Volunteer Policy
• Municipal Public Health and Wellbeing Plan

Visit the project page

To read more about this consultation please visit the Shaping a better Yarra together - Council Plan 2025-29 project page on Your Say Yarra. To learn more about this Council Plan as well as the indicators and measures for its success, the documents are available on our website: