By Tanya Steele
Health and wellbeing are improving in the Yarra Ranges Council agenda with progress and updates emerging as mostly positive.
Councillors unanimously endorsed its Active Recreation plan for the Yarra Ranges at their recent meeting on 10 October.
The plan will guide the council’s decisions and planning to encourage people to be healthy and active in the community – with the aim to increase physical activity by 15 percent over the next 10 years.
Deputy Mayor and Melba Ward Cr Todorov said at the meeting that overall the endorsed plan sees better collaboration, partnerships with other stakeholders and capacity building and leadership to actually improve the health and wellbeing outcomes for all of the community.
“I just find it really pleasing to be able to have a health and well being plan update and particularly two years into this current plan – it’s an opportunity to update the public and not only ourselves on the mid-term progress of the plan, what we’ve achieved in the last two years … and what focus council will actually take over the next two years as well,” she said.
The councillor has been part of a refresh on the health and wellbeing advisory committee which developed the plan – Cr Todorov said the committee now sees a diverse group of 12 from the community who provided wonderful insight, feedback, passion, and suggestions which would feed into council plans and policies.
Streeton Ward Cr Fullagar added a cautionary note and said that while the health and well being plan is hugely far reaching and foundational, it was vital appropriate resources were allocated to it.
“I note that there has been some limited progress in some areas – in particular drug and alcohol, gambling, healthy eating and food resilience,” he said.
“In summary, this report could be described as a comma and a question mark – a pause and a reflection on the original plan, I am confident it’s on track.”
Ryrie Ward Cr McAllister also spoke to the motion and said she would also like to thank the disability advisory committee, who along with the positive aging reference group (PARG), Yarra Ranges Council’s youth ambassadors and skate clinic participants from across the Yarra Ranges were engaged for contributions to the plan.
“Some of the many valuable things we do are around do around connection, resilience and health and well being and to pause and celebrate a few…gives me gratitude and joy.
Cr Todorov said the plan underpins much of the council’s other work and the motion was carried unanimously.
“It’s really encouraging to see us consulting with this really valuable group of people seeking their input as well – I fully support the progress updates,” she said.
Engagement for the plan ran earlier this year from 10 July to 31 August and asked members of the public to weigh in on ways to get people more active for their health.
The engagement found that 89 percent of residents said they would be more active if there were something interesting, appealing, accessible and convenient for them available.
Mayor and O’Shannassy Ward Cr Child said community feedback was positive, identifying opportunities for new facilities, safety and access improvements and event programming.
“I’m thankful to the many community members who took time to take part in our online engagement or have a chat at community pop-ups,” he said.
Key themes which emerged were requests for the opportunity for diverse, convenient, safe, accessible and social activities that also allowed for time spent in the outdoor and natural environment.
The plan will be implemented as the budget is allocated and funding becomes available in late 2023.
“Through our engagement, we’ve identified road crossings, lighting, shared use paths and trail links in need of improvements and interest in more events to give opportunities for parents, families, and older adults to get active,” Cr Child said.
The Active Recreation Plan has been partially funded through a grant from Sport and Recreation Victoria and is now available to view in full on the Yarra Ranges website.
