Status: Closed

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The Purpose

The City owns and/or manages assets worth around $1.99 billion which services a population of around 120,000 people.

The City developed the draft Community Asset Policy for the purpose of equitable and sustainable planning and management of community assets. The Policy provides principles for decision making, asset management, and guides the development of related strategic documents.

Community feedback on the draft Policy was open from July 30, 2024 to August 20, 2024. Seeking community feedback helped to determine if:

  • The purpose and principles were clear and easy to understand
  • If the definition terms were clear and helpful to understand

All feedback has been reviewed and the Policy updated as appropriate, ready for Council review and adoption.

News update

The community feedback was considered, and resulted in some changes being made to the draft Community Asset Policy. You can find more details the feedback below.

In response to the feedback, a Policy summary has also been created. You can read it below.

The updated draft Policy was presented to Council at the September 16, 2024 meeting and endorsed.

The below image is a snapshot of some of the things the City includes as assets. These statistics were accurate as of July 2023.

Our City at Work:

  • 306 bridges valued at over $80.2M
  • 1,538kms of sealed roads valued at over $565.7M
  • 1,422kms of unsealed (gravel) roads valued at over $61.1M
  • 125,500m2 of airport runways and taxiways valued at over $12.5M
  • 108 off-road sealed and unsealed carparks valued at over $11.6M
  • 5.6kms of tram tracks valued at over $19.0M
  • 942kms of footpaths (includes bike paths and paths within reserves) valued at
  • 1,267kms of kerb and channel valued at over $148.9M
  • 1,097kms of underground drains valued at over $286.5M
  • 49,816 drainage pits valued at over $61.0M
  • 8.6kms of creek infrastructure valued at over $54.5M
  • 42 dam walls valued at over $34.7M
  • 44 gross pollutant traps valued at over $2.5M
  • Over 49,000 square metres of paved areas valued at over $8.3M
  • Land improvements (eg. sporting surfaces, irrigation, etc.) valued at over $84.1M
  • 163 playspaces valued at over $16.9M
  • Public furniture (eg. bus shelters, BBQs, drinking fountains, sports lighting, etc.)
  • Over 2,380 hectares of managed (crown land) valued over $305.3M
  • Statues and monuments valued at over $13.9M
  • Over 1,280 public buildings and structures valued at more than $583.5M
  • 7 poppet head structures
  • 21 public halls* (excludes non-City assets in Neilborough Sedgewick, Woodvale etc.)
  • Over 46 heritage listed buildings
  • 17 kinder, pre-school and childcare centre buildings
  • 54 public toilet amenities
  • Over 212 shade sails
  • Over 70 sporting reserves and venues
  • Over 20 heritage and formal gardens
  • Over 310 passive recreation reserves
  • 170 natural reserves
  • Over 100,000 nature strip trees
  • 12 swimming pools including two indoor heated pools
  • Over 6,500 restricted car parking spaces patrolled by parking officers
  • Over 9,500 streetlights funded by the City over $162.4M valued at over $33.1M

The Policy

The policy covers:

  • Scope of what the policy applies to
  • Definitions of terms used throughout the policy
  • Principles that underpin the policy
  • Roles and responsibilities including City staff and Councillors involved in any decision-making relating to assets that support the delivery of services for community benefit; or are held by the City for future use.

The purpose of this Community Asset Policy (Policy) is to guide sustainable planning and management of the City of Greater Bendigo (City) assets by setting clear parameters around usage of a consistent Asset Management framework.

It provides principles and decision-making methodology to be applied to:

  • Asset focused strategic documents.
  • Community Asset Management activities including investment or rationalisation.

The Asset Management framework (including this policy – refer to definitions) establishes guidelines to ensure that suitable infrastructure and physical assets are available to support the delivery of services for the community. It considers current and future community needs and seeks to balance levels of service with community expectations and the City’s fiscal responsibilities.

The principles described in this Policy seek to ensure decision making is consistent, fair and equitable, transparent and accountable – creating a balance between the operational and financial challenges faced by the City, and community benefits and outcomes.

The Principles

  • Accessible

    Promotes access for all abilities, aims to be affordable and easy for people to get to. Fair access to facilities and services that are needed across the municipality including healthy, safe and inclusive places, spaces and services.

    Socially and culturally considerate, including promoting respect and acknowledgement for Traditional Owner’s culture, history, heritage and connection to land, and furthers healing of Country.

  • Consultative and engaged

    Meaningfully consult and engage with community and stakeholders as appropriate. The level of engagement and community participation will be guided by the City’s Community Engagement Policy (inclusive of the IAP2 Spectrum of Participation).

  • Equitable, fair and transparent

    Fair access to facilities and services that are needed across the municipality including healthy, safe and inclusive places, spaces and services. The City will provide the community with a clear understanding of Council’s role and how decisions are made, so that the community understands what is planned or proposed for the communities in which they live. The City will apply an equity lens across decisions where appropriate, guided by the City’s EIA process.

  • Financially sustainable

    Consider the City’s current and future financial situation, affordability, asset life cycle planning, value for money and efficiency.

  • Integrated, adaptable and aligned

    Flexible and responsive the changing needs of the community and can be used for more than one purpose. Supports the delivery of the Council Plan and aims to make decisions that are focused on delivering strategic objectives and priorities, while having appropriate mechanisms in place to consider valuable community led ideas and initiatives.

  • Partnering and collaboration

    Integrated with other services where possible and a place for people to come together. The City cannot respond to complex issues and opportunities alone and through partnership based approaches, the City will work with others to achieve shared outcomes for maximum community benefit.

  • Promotes wellbeing

    Positively impacts health outcomes for the community.

  • Service and evidence driven

    Guided by defined current and target future service levels, that seek to align community need. Informed by reliable and evidence-based data, including demographic trends. The City will use consistent and quality asset management process to effectively manage assets throughout their lifecycle (i.e. operations, maintenance, renewal, upgrade, expansion and disposal) to support delivery of the City’s services.

  • Sustainable

    Environmentally, socially and culturally responsible, well designed, climate resilient, effectively managed and usage is optimised, now and into the future. Promotes positive environmental outcomes or minimises negative impacts, including planning for climate resilience.

  • Safe and compliant

    City will invest to support assets being compliant with all relevant laws and regulations and manage risk responsibly to prioritise community safety

Read the policy

Have your say

Community input on the draft policy has now closed.

The survey was open from July 30, 2024 and closed August 20, 2024.

FAQ's

Timeline

  • Timeline item 1 - complete

    Community feedback opens

    July 30, 2024

  • Timeline item 2 - complete

    Community feedback closes

    August 20, 2024

  • Timeline item 3 - complete

    Community feedback reviewed

    End August 2024

  • Timeline item 4 - complete

    Report to Council

    September 2024

  • Timeline item 5 - complete

    Community informed of outcome

    September - October 2024

Contact Us

Have questions or want to learn more about this project, contact us below:

Name Community Infrastructure Project Officer
Phone 1300 002 642
Email communitypartnerships@Bendigo.vic.gov.au