Asset Plan Deliberative Panel

A major reform of the Local Government Act 2020 includes the requirement for councils to undertake deliberative community engagement processes to inform their four-year Council Plan, long term Community Vision, and long term Financial and Asset Plans. This allows communities to better inform Council’s strategic directions and resourcing priorities.

With a range of challenges including ageing assets, funding constraints, demographic changes and climate change impacts, Frankston City Council required a robust and meaningful engagement process. Capire worked with Council to design and deliver a deliberative approach to address this.

Three panel sessions were held in the first three weeks of March 2022. The Panel was asked to deliberate on the following question: ‘What are the key community assets that Frankston needs to focus on and/or improve, to deliver the required services over the next ten years?’

In deliberating over this question, the panel identified a set of decision-making principles and community priorities using the following question framing:

• What is currently working well, and what is not working well?
• Which Council assets are the most important to the Frankston community?
• How should Council make decisions about asset management and planning?

The panel worked together to prepare a set of principle statements for how Council should allocate discretionary funds that align with community expectations and priorities for future asset management and provision. Feedback has informed the development and priorities of the Frankston City Council Asset Plan 2023 – 2032

In focusing the scope of deliberative engagement, Council will be able to align future asset planning and management to better align with community expectations and aspirations.