By Marcus Uhe
The City of Casey is inviting residents to give feedback on their Draft 10-year Asset Plan, published Thursday 14 April, detailing the council’s plan for managing $3.5 Billion worth of infrastructure assets such as roads, parks, bridges and buildings.
The draft 10-year Asset Plan provides an overview about the assets Council owns and uses to provide services, and Council’s proposed approach to managing those assets now and in the future in support of its Long-Term Community Vision 2031.
Within what the council determine to be ‘growth areas’, including Clyde North, Clyde, Cranbourne West and Cranbourne East, the City of Casey has planned for the delivery of 14 new community facilities, 28 new recreational facilities, 122 new roads, playgrounds and sports ovals and new roads and drainage.
The City of Casey expects the population in those suburbs to ‘almost triple’ over the next 20 years.
The draft Asset Plan also documents Council’s commitment to investing in current and future assets to meet the service delivery needs of the community, and addresses the aspirations contained in the Community Vision, priorities of the Council Plan and alignment with Council’s Long-term Financial Plan.
The draft plan was informed by feedback received as part of Council’s Shape Your City engagement program in 2020 and 2021, as well as a deliberative panel of 22 local residents, representative of Casey’s diverse community, who participated in two deliberative workshops.
City of Casey Chair of Administrators Noelene Duff PSM said the deliberative workshops enabled Council to understand community sentiments around several asset management approaches aimed at improving the sustainability of Council’s asset portfolio.
“These approaches included increasing funding through grants, loans, public-private partnerships, commercial arrangements or joint user agreements,” she said.
“Other approaches included decreasing the number and/or cost of new assets; decreasing the existing asset base by divesting of or decommissioning existing assets; and/or reducing the frequency of renewals and upgrades for existing assets.
“The focus of these sessions was to identify a level of comfort with each option. Feedback from the workshops will continue to be used to help guide the City of Casey’s ongoing approach to asset management, alongside feedback through this current public exhibition opportunity.”
Residents can provide feedback on the Draft Asset Plan from Wednesday 13 April until Wednesday 4 May 2022 by visiting Council’s Casey Conversations website.
The 10-year Asset Plan will be presented to Council for adoption on 14 June 2022.
To view a copy of the plan head to casey.vic.gov.au/news/casey-residents-invited-have-say-draft-10-year-asset-plan
