Community feedback to help ‘Shape the Ranges’
Last updated on 12 February 2025
Macedon Ranges residents and ratepayers are being invited to share views on rates, roads, rubbish and more, to help review and refresh a series of key Council documents.
‘Shaping the Ranges’ will put a spotlight back on multi-year documents adopted in 2021 – including the Community Vision, Council Plan, Financial Plan, Asset Plan, and Revenue and Rating Plan – which act as the driving pillars for what Council delivers.
This multi-staged consultation will see revised documents developed and informed by external feedback from the community and key organisations, internal feedback from Councillors and Council staff, and a focused engagement with a demographically representative community assembly.
Mayor Dom Bonanno encouraged anyone with an opinion on what Council should prioritise over the next four years, or anyone who holds a vision more broadly for the shire’s future, to take the time to review the existing documents and provide feedback.
“These key documents outline what we commit to doing on behalf of our community,” Mayor Bonanno said. “In this initial phase of consultation, you do not have to have any prior knowledge of these documents – just a willingness to contribute and a vision for our shared future.”
“Importantly, this will not be the only opportunity for the community to provide feedback – the release of the revised draft documents later in the year will offer another chance to respond to how we have interpreted initial feedback, and where we’ve identified changes to improve the documents.”
Macedon Ranges Shire Council, like all councils across Victoria, is legislatively required to complete deliberative engagement – a collaborative, in-depth form of engagement – to review or renew key documents by 31 October in the year following a general election (in this case, 31 October 2025).
Like the process of finalising the original documents in 2021, Council is complementing broader community consultation with a community assembly, comprising approximately 30 members independently selected to represent the broad demographics of the community.
This assembly will be asked to participate across four independently facilitated in-person sessions across March and April 2025, to deliberate on the key documents and provide feedback.
Visit Shaping the Ranges - Your Say and follow the survey link to have your say, with submissions in this first phase invited until 18 March 2025.*
* Due to the required earlier delivery and adoption of the Rating and Revenue Plan, Council may seek to incorporate feedback informing this plan a week or so earlier than the closing date of Tuesday 18 March 2025.