Planning for the Council Budget 2025-26 is now underway. Council works hard each year to deliver a balanced, fair and responsible budget, outlining how funds will be invested to deliver services and infrastructure to our community. The budget must also respond to the needs of our community and deliver critical services and projects that provide best value for ratepayers.

An important step in setting our annual budget is making sure we consider community voice, as decisions are made about allocating resources for the year ahead. There are many ways we seek to hear from our community and recently you have told us, through ongoing consultations, you want us to focus on the foundations - roads, drainage and rubbish, and look after our existing assets. Funds for these priorities have already been allocated.

To help make sure we have the best understanding about what is most important to you, and to help us prioritise the types of projects and services that matter most to our community, we have a created a survey covering the following key areas:

• Advocacy (to other levels of goverment);
• Financial levers (mechanisms we can use); and
• Valued services and infrastructure.

We will use this information to enrich other feedback, including the recent community engagement from the Shape your future project, to ensure we have clarity on what is most valued. We are looking closely at the above key areas, considering the challenges facing our community and organisation and recognise that changes may need to be made over the next few years, to support Council's long term financial position.