Yarra Ranges Shire residents are invited to help shape and have their say on the Council budget for 2023/24.
Engagement opened on Monday 30 January and the public has until Sunday 12 March to submit their ideas and feedback.
Yarra Ranges Mayor, Cr Jim Child, said that the annual budget engagement was evolving, with community insights fed into budget planning earlier in the process.
“In previous years, we’ve released our Draft Budget to the community for comment around April and May with the submissions we receive helping to shape the final draft,” he said.
“But the Budget itself is several hundred pages, and not always accessible to everyone in our community, so we want to hear from our communities earlier in the piece before we put pen to paper.”
Residents have a number of different methods of providing a response, with options to share a quick 140-character comment or thought, spend five to 10 to share how they would invest $100, share a more detailed response by submitting a form or find a time to chat with the Council team at a local pop-up event.
Cr Child said by getting the community involved earlier, they hope to learn more about what is important to you and what you want us to focus on and invest in so that when they develop the draft budget, they will know it matches the needs of the community.
“There are plenty of ways for the community to feed into this process, from sharing your ideas on our website using a tool to show how you would prioritise investment, to writing down your thoughts, or contacting our teams directly to talk big ideas,” he said
“Making the Yarra Ranges the best place to live, work and play is what matters most to us at Yarra Ranges, so we want to make sure you get a chance to tell us if we’re hitting the mark.”
