143 people registered their interest to take part in the panel and in the end 44 people from across the Yarra Ranges, representing different age groups, backgrounds and life experiences of our residents were selected to participate. The panel worked together to provide feedback to Council, for consideration in the development of Council’s Asset Plan 2022-2032.

This was a ‘deliberative’ community engagement process. This means the panel was:

• Provided with a broad range of information
• Heard from subject matter experts, and had the chance to ask questions
• Discussed the issues, challenges, and opportunities in-depth in small and large groups

External facilitators supported the members to share their viewpoints and work together respectfully.

The panel considered the big question:

How should Council balance the cost and quality of the assets with the diverse needs of the community?

The discussion was guided by the following type of questions:

• Should Council focus more on building and maintaining smaller facilities in many locations, or building and maintaining larger regional facilities?
• How can Council best respond to the likelihood of more frequent extreme weather events?
• What principles should Council use to make investment decisions associated with assets?

Between 9 January and 10 February 2022, we asked the general community to tell us 'if they had to choose between maintaining existing assets or building new ones, how would you spend your rates?'

764 people contributed up to 5 votes each and an overview is provided below. It is clear that maintaining what we have is important to the community as a whole and this supports the value of the Asset Plan and Policy for future planning.