Kingston unveils a new Community Vision developed by the community
Kingston Council has been presented with its new Community Vision with a focus on building the most liveable and sustainable city in Victoria.
Developed by a representative community panel with feedback from many thousands more who live and work in Kingston, the vision sets out the long-term aspirations of our community and provides a set of principles to guide Council decision making to ensure that vision stays on track.
Kingston Mayor Steve Staikos said he was proud to receive the new Community Vision that would help guide Council as it strives to build a Kingston that meets the needs and aspirations of the community into the future.
“The new vision has been developed through the dedication and hard work of the Your Kingston Your Future Community Panel who were empowered to create this important piece of work,” said Cr Staikos. “The panel spent more than 2000 hours developing the vision and recommendations for our strategic plans that will ensure Kingston is the best place to live, work and play now and into the future.”
The Community Vision focuses on inclusiveness, diversity, resilience, protecting our natural environment, thriving businesses and embracing innovation. “These are all key ingredients to help build Kingston into the most liveable and sustainable city we can be,” Cr Staikos said.
The Your Kingston Your Future Community Panel developed our Community Vision statement:
Kingston is a resilient, inclusive and diverse community. We are building the most liveable and sustainable city in Victoria.
We champion and nurture our green and open spaces creating a safe, healthy environment.
Our shared legacy connects our community, embracing innovation, making Kingston the place to live.
The Panel also developed a series of recommendations for Council’s strategic plans. Those recommendations are being used to draft the four-year Council Plan, Public Health and Wellbeing Plan and 10-year plans for how we manage the city’s finances and assets.
The community will have another chance to provide input on those plans in late August with the final strategic plans expected to be considered by Council at the October Council Meeting (excluding the Asset Management Plan which will be considered in 2022).
“What is exciting about our new Community Vision is that although Council has always engaged with the community when developing our Council Vision and guiding plans, this is the first time a representative community panel has been given the power to develop their own vision with Council committing to adopt it with no changes,” said Cr Staikos.
“All our panellists told us they felt the process was ‘collaborative, genuine and worthwhile’ with most saying they were much more likely to participate in projects like this in the future now.”
The Community Vision report can be accessed at kingston.vic.gov.au/vision.
