Banyule Integrated Planning Community Engagement

In line with the Victorian Local Government Act 2020, Banyule City Council undertook deliberative engagement to help develop their Council Plan, Asset Plan and Financial Plan and review their Community Vision 2041. This followed on from the ‘Banyule 2041 Community Working Group’ in 2021, which Capire also supported. Prior to the deliberative engagement process, Council undertook a shire-wide community engagement program.

Capire provided Council with strategic advice before and during the shire-wide community engagement program – co-designing the engagement approach, framing, objectives, questions and delivery. A key outcome of Capire’s ongoing reviews and in-person workshops was an increase in Council’s internal capacity to plan, facilitate and report on integrated planning engagement.

Capire supported Council to co-design, facilitate and report on four deliberative engagement sessions with the ‘Banyule Community ThinkTank’ – a group of 55 community members, who represented the diversity of Banyule. During the four sessions, held between July and December 2024, the ThinkTank took a deep-dive into Council’s Community Vision 2041, key Council documents, and community priorities and concerns.

The Banyule Community ThinkTank subsequently developed three key outputs to help Council develop its key strategic plans:

• six revised Community Vision theme descriptions
• 34 recommended priorities for Council to focus on over the next four years
• six recommended principles to guide how Council does its work over the next four years.

These outputs were presented to Banyule Councillors during the final session.