Community Vision

"In 2041, Horsham region is a vibrant, liveable hub that thrives on strong economic growth and social connectedness. Empowering people to live, work and access opportunities for recreation and culture, now and into the future."

Community Vision Document(PDF, 2MB)

What is a Community Vision?

The Community Vision reflects the community's hopes, aspirations and priorities for the next 20 years. It directly informs Council's strategic documents 

It was developed by an independently selected Community Panel formed to ensure the demographics of the municipality were evenly represented. It directly informs Council's strategic documents including the Council Plan, Health and Wellbeing Plan, Asset Plan and Long-term Financial Plan.

The process

The long-term strategic document was developed by an independently selected Community Panel and was informed by extensive feedback from engagement with the broader community during the first 6 months of 2021.

Council sent an invite to every household across the municipality to participate in the Community Panel and received more than 90 expressions of interest. From these 36 participants were selected by independent consultancy firm i.e. Community, which ensured the demographics were evenly represented. The number of participants reduced to 26 following Victoria’s June Covid lockdown which forced meetings to be rescheduled. 

The panel nevertheless managed to hold its face-to-face sessions over three Sundays from 20 June to 4 July at Horsham Town Hall.

Chief Executive Officer Sunil Bhalla thanked community members who had contributed to the Community Vision 2041.

To inform the panel’s deliberations, wider public engagement was undertaken between February and May to gather feedback from the community under the banner of Horsham Talks.

This involved online engagement, face to face pop-up sessions, surveys and community conversations, with 937 responses received.

The proposed Community Vision was presented to all Councillors for their consideration at the final panel session on Sunday 4 July and was adopted, unchanged, at the Council Meeting on Monday 26 July.

“They are to be commended for taking a proactive role in building our shared future,” Mr Bhalla said.

“It’s vital that our residents have helped shape Council’s strategic direction. We thank them for the engagement, the feedback and the contribution,” he said.