Policies & strategies

Council's Community Engagement Policy sets the direction for meaningful, authentic and responsive engagement across the organisation. 

It outlines who Council will engage with - including why, how and when we will engage - to ensure that a coordinated and consistent approach is taken across all areas of Council, and that the community is at the heart of all decision making.

The Community Engagement Policy was endorsed by Council 9 July, 2024.

 

Outlines support for volunteers in their roles and work practices.

Council's Community Waste and Resource Recovery Plan 2023-2030 outlines how bin collections and waste systems will change for our community over coming years.

The document, formed using thousands of community members' comments, has been prepared as a result of the State Government's Recycling Victoria Policy, which will introduce new waste streams to collect food organics and garden organics (FOGO) and glass, along with items for landfill and other recyclables.

It outlines ambitious targets for Council and the Yarra Ranges community to minimise waste and significantly cut the amount sent to landfill.

This Plan was endorsed by Council on Tuesday, 13 June, 2023.

To find out more about the changes, visit our webpage for FOGO collections.

To learn more about the journey of this plan you can visit our Shaping Yarra Ranges webpage.

Whilst we always strive to meet our community’s expectations, sometimes we may not. When this happens, we want to use a consistent, fair, and equitable resolution process and work with our community to understand and improve.

The Policy will:

• protect and promote the community’s right to provide feedback, a compliment or make a complaint;
• ensure that complaints are investigated and responded to in an appropriate, consistent, and effective manner;
• inform the community of the internal and external procedures for managing feedback and complaints;
• protect and promote the human rights of all people involved in complaints, and ensure that proper consideration of relevant human rights issues occurs throughout the complaint handling process; 
• commit to effective management of and learning from complaints.

The Policy shows how we will:

• enable complaints to be made;
• respond to complaints we receive; and
• learn and improve from complaints.

The Policy helps us to:

• improve standards of services to our community;
• raise standards of investigation and decision making through clear processes;
• ensure a fair and equitable approach and improve internal complaint handling; and
• reduce recurring complaints.

Council provides a diverse range of services and is trusted with a range of decision-making powers so that it can govern in the best interests of the local community. These powers must be exercised properly and impartially, with integrity and in accordance with the Local Government Act 2020 (Act).  

A number of functions performed by Council have the potential to lead to conflicts of interest arising. This, in itself, is not necessarily unethical or a sign of wrongdoing – conflicts are an inevitable fact of organisational life. However, conflicts create risks and should therefore be identified and managed appropriately to ensure Council’s continued transparency, accountability and integrity, and to protect the public interest.

 

Council delegates some powers, duties and functions to Officers via these Instruments of Delegation:

• Council to Staff
• Council to CEO
• CEO to Staff
• VicSmart
• Municipal Building Surveyor

Council delegates some powers, duties and functions to Council officers to effectively and efficiently carry out its business.  This is formalised through a written Instrument of Delegation.

The Local Government (General) Regulations 2015 requires Council to make available a register of delegations, including the dates on which the last reviews took place.    

The following delegations have been made by Council under section 11(1) of the Local Government Act 2020 and specific powers of delegation conferred on Council by other Acts. This Register is kept under section 11(8) of the Local Government Act 2020:

Instrument	Details	Date effective
S5	Instrument of Delegation from Council to the Chief Executive Officer(PDF, 145KB)	11/10/23
S6	Instrument of Delegation from Council to Staff(PDF, 4MB)	19/09/24
S18	Instrument of Sub-Delegation under the Environment Protection Act 2017 to Members of Council Staff(PDF, 245KB)	21/09/21
C4	Instrument of Delegation from Council to the Hearing of Submissions Committee(PDF, 173KB)	20/04/21

 

The following delegations have been made by the Chief Executive Officer under section 47(2) of the Act and this Register is kept under section 47(7) of the Act:

Instrument	Details	Date effective
S7	Instrument of Sub-Delegation from the Chief Executive Officer to Staff(PDF, 2MB)	10/05/23
S14	Instrument of Delegation from Chief Executive Officer to Staff(PDF, 415KB)	10/05/23
S16	Instrument of Delegation for Bushfire Reconstruction Applications under the Planning and Environment Act 1987(PDF, 250KB)	04/10/21
	Instrument of Sub-Delegation from the Chief Executive Officer (Neighbourhood Amenity Local Law)(PDF, 316KB)	14/09/20

 

The following delegations have been made by the Municipal Building Surveyor under section 216B of the Building Act 1993:

Instrument	Details	Date effective
S12	Instrument of Delegation from the Municipal Building Surveyor(PDF, 2MB)	September 2024

 

This local law includes Council's meeting procedures, mayoral elections and use of the common seal. It can be viewed via the following link and at the Council Offices in Lilydale.

Outlines our strategic direction, details key priorities and the actions we will carry out over a four year period. It states how the activities will be resourced and our performance measured.

Enables councillors to recognise the importance of maintaining the highest levels of integrity and ethical behaviour in order to provide effective governance and leadership for the community.

Sets out clear parameters for what expenditure can be reimbursed to Councillors and the process for reimbursement.