Council Plan and Budget

The Council Plan is our 10-year strategic plan that details all our work, projects and budget information.

I want to

The Council Plan is our strategic plan that guides all our work. It provides a strong foundation for the continuing rollout of projects, services and initiatives that go to the heart of the health and wellbeing of our diverse community.

Council Plan and Budget documents

Until 30 June 2023

Council Plan 2021-2031 Year Two - Volume 1 Vision and Direction (PDF 4.31 MB)

Council Plan 2021-2031 Year Two - Volume 2 Budget 2022-23 (PDF 2.71 MB)

Council Plan 2021-2031 Year Two - Volume 3 Service Profiles (PDF 1.90 MB)

Adopting and implementing the Council Plan 2021-31 Year Two

On Wednesday 29 June, Council adopted Year Two of the Council Plan 2021-31 and 2022/23 Budget.

Our community has told us that reducing our impact on the environment and managing waste in a sustainable way is critically important. Our new waste strategy aims to meet community expectations as well as our legislative obligations.

This includes introducing two additional waste services that will provide our community with sustainable ways to recycle food organics and garden organics (FOGO) as well as glass. The introduction of new waste services coincides with waste-related costs significantly rising.

As a result, a waste charge is now part of our Budget. Separated from the general rates, this will cover the extra costs of existing and new waste services. Most Victorian councils already have a separate waste charge. As well as handling these extra costs, a waste charge is more transparent as you can see exactly what you are paying for these services on your rates notice.

Fairness is at the heart of the change to our Rating Strategy from Net Annual Value (NAV) to Capital Improved Value (CIV). This simpler mechanism based on a property’s market (sale) value, rather than the rental value, will help us more fairly distribute rates through the use of differential rating mechanisms. Under the NAV system, changes in property valuation since 2016/17 have seen a rates distribution shift of up to $900,000 away from commercial and industrial properties to residential properties.

In another first, this year’s Budget includes an Enterprise Asset Management Plan to guide how we look after our City’s assets – from parks and playgrounds to roads and our historic Town Halls. Our community expects all these assets to stay in good condition and this plan shows the proposed spending on maintenance, renewal, upgrades and new infrastructure to deliver this outcome.

Please view our news item for a summary of changes to Council Plan and Budget.

Our community vision

Proudly Port Phillip: A liveable and vibrant City that enhances the wellbeing of our community

A decade from now…

We recognise the legacy of the traditional owners of the land, the Yaluk-ut Weelam Clan of the Boonwurrung and acknowledge the foresight of others who have come before us.

We celebrate Port Phillip as a city of many distinct places, connected by the common threads of safety, inclusion and wellbeing so everyone can live their best life.

Social cohesion, forged from understanding, celebrating and listening to the diverse cultures in our City, is a foundation for this success.

We have a well-designed and planned city where the heritage and character of the built form of our City is enhanced and protected.

We are renowned as a cultural hub, from live music to our creative industries. This creativity drives music, exhibitions and events which delight residents and encourage visitors to keep returning.

Our more diverse local economy enjoys greater protection from financial shocks and new investment and industries within our City are generating jobs and prosperity.

We have a range of accessible and active transport choices that make it easy for everyone to move around our City. Visiting lively shopping and dining destinations or accessing public transport is all possible within a 10 to 15-minute walk from our neighbourhoods.

Our health and wellbeing are enriched by having quality public spaces close to home. We can visit these spaces easily to enjoy quiet moments or more active pursuits with our friends and families.

The beauty and biodiversity of our coastal, bay, park, waterway and inland environments are protected and enhanced for future generations to enjoy. We have played our part in promoting and addressing environmental sustainability, from tackling climate change, emissions and sea level rise to minimising flooding risks.

We are proud that our participation in civic life means Port Phillip has retained its unique character and heritage while being admired as a creative hub that continues to evolve and innovate. We know our voice is heard and helps deliver meaningful outcomes.

We have a local Council that strives to deliver services in the most efficient, transparent and equitable way. Our Council provides strong financial stewardship, is responsible and works hard to balance meeting community expectations and diversifying revenue streams with minimising costs for our community.

This is the minimum we hope for our community in 10 years’ time – we hope to achieve much more.

This is our legacy for generations to come.

Our Strategic Directions

The Council Plan sets out five Strategic Directions. They guide our priorities and actions as we work towards achieving the Community Vision. These are the Directions:

Inclusive: A City that is a place for all members of our community, where people feel supported and comfortable being themselves and expressing their identities.

Liveable: A City that is a great place to live, where our community has access to high quality public spaces, development and growth are well-managed, and it is safer and easy to connect and travel within.

Sustainable: A City that has a sustainable future, where our environmentally aware and active community benefits from living in a bayside city that is greener, cooler, cleaner and climate resilient.

Vibrant: A City that has a flourishing economy, where our community and local businesses thrive, and we maintain and enhance our reputation as one of Melbourne’s cultural and creative hubs.

Well-Governed: A City that is a leading local government authority, where our community and our organisation are in a better place as a result of our collective efforts.

Addressing our challenges

The Council Plan 2021-31 responds to eight key long-term challenges. These must be addressed to achieve the vision our community has for Port Phillip over the coming years. The challenges are:

Addressing issues including:
- Providing access to necessities, such as housing and food security.
- Financial stresses and job losses as exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Homelessness and the need to provide longer-term accommodation with access to integrated support services.
Addressing issues including:
- An age-diverse population with 7 per cent of residents aged over 70 and 47 per cent being 'digital natives' aged under 34 (Source: Census of Population and Housing 2016).
- A culturally diverse community with 392 people who identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, as well as one third of residents being born overseas and 20 per cent speaking a language other than English (Source: Census of Population and Housing 2016).
- Customers expect high quality, efficient services and meaningful opportunities to communicate and engage with Council.
Addressing issues including:
- Changes to legislation.
- The growing importance of government and community services in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Communities looking to councils to fill any gaps created by a reduction or change to services provided by other tiers of government.
- A greater reliance on technology and the need to address cybersecurity, data protection and privacy challenges.
Addressing issues including:
- The City of Port Phillip declared a climate emergency in 2019; we are reducing our emissions and preparing our City and community for a changing environment.
- Climate change and heat-related issues, including hotter urban spaces, disruption to transport and services, power outages and increased power bills.
- Sea level rise, increased severity and frequency of storms and more extreme rainfall are projected to result in increased flooding and associated increased storm damage to private land and Council assets.
- Increased urbanisation and loss of trees and vegetation is contributing to pollutants, nutrients, litter and sediment flowing into Port Phillip Bay and impacting biodiversity.
Addressing issues including:
- The economic shock associated with responding to the health challenge of COVID-19, including significant falls in local spending, gross regional product and employment.
- A reduction of more than 750,000 visitor nights as a result of fewer domestic and overseas tourists, due to COVD-19 travel restrictions.
- The economic impact on creative and cultural industries, as well as our hospitality sector.
Addressing issues including:
- Impacts on population growth following the COVID-19 pandemic, with slowed construction and migrant growth.
- Reduced development, particularly for apartments, with the greatest impact being on the development of Fishermans Bend.
- The need for investment in social housing, including the Victorian Government investment of approximately $5.3 billion providing incentives for developers to include affordable housing in new developments.
Addressing issues including:
- Being the most densely populated municipality in Victoria, with the current density being one person per 177 square metres (Source: Profile ID).
- The pressure on our 265 kilometres of roads, 59 kilometres of bike lanes and paths and 414 kilometres of footpaths.
- The increased importance of personal health and safety in the consideration of transport choices, including the potential for the decline in the use of public transport and shared mobility, such as car share, post-COVID.
- An increase in the number of people working from home and the impact on road networks, forms of transport and residential parking needs.
Addressing issues including:
Increased waste generation as more residents work from home and the City's population grows.
Service costs are expected to rise when the Victorian Government's landfill levy increases to $105.09 per tonne from 1 July 2021 and then to $125.90 per tonne in 2022.
A new Waste Act and administering authority that will set the legislative framework for household recycling reforms. These reforms mean all Victorian councils will need to provide access to a four-service waste model covering garbage, recycling, separated glass (by 2027) and food and garden organics (by 2030).
Despite Council offering waste management services, dumped waste continues to be an issue

In this section

Previous Council Plans and Budgets

Council Plan and Budget

Council Plan and Budget documents

Adopting and implementing the Council Plan 2021-31 Year Two

Our community vision

Our Strategic Directions

Addressing our challenges

A city of economic and social contrasts

Changing customer expectations and needs

Government, legislative and technology changes

Climate change and the environment

The strength and diversity of our local economy

Future-proofing our growing City of Port Phillip

Getting around our dense inner City of Port Phillip

Waste management

In this section

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