November 18th, 2025Hepburn Shire Council asked to lift game

The 2024/25 Local Government Performance Reporting data, published last week, has Hepburn Shire Council again looking for ways to improve its services – especially in planning and workforce turnover.

Council’s audited data was published in its 2024/25 Annual Report, which was adopted by the council at the September council meeting.
The ‘Know Your Council’ dashboard that was released allows the community to compare council service areas.
The tool compiles data collected from Victorian councils and shows whether a council has met its own targets and how this compares to other councils across the state. It can be accessed via the Local Government Victoria website.
Council CEO Bradley Thomas said the council was disappointed with some of the results but had the people, resources and systems in place to improve.
Mr Thomas said the results reflected some challenges that the council, and the broader local government sector, were facing, particularly in the areas of planning and workforce turnover.
Service areas listed for improvement were: 102 days taken to decide planning applications, above the state average of 72.5 days (down from the previous year of 180 days); 26.5 per cent of planning applications were decided within required timeframes (up from 17.9 per cent last year and way off the state average of 69.7 per cent); and a 22.4 per cent workforce turnover (above the state average of 15.1 per cent).
On the Know Your Council dashboard the council stated a turnover of staff in key roles over the past 18 months, coupled with a number of ongoing complex planning, enforcement and VCAT matters, had resulted in a challenging backlog of planning applications.
“However, the percentage of applications decided within 60 statutory days, is steadily improving, in response to vacancies being filled and the continuing implementation of targeted process improvements.”
The council stated, in relation to the unplanned employee turnover rate of 15.73 – where staff move to a new workplace – when the overall turnover was adjusted to include planned turnover, (redundancies, terminations and retirements) the total annual turnover was 22.4 per cent, a reduction of one per cent on 2023/24.
“The overall employee turnover rate is higher than would be preferred. Council’s turnover rate remains consistent with the industry average for a small rural shire and reflects the challenges of small rural councils in recruiting and retaining suitably qualified individuals.”
Mr Thomas said the community deserved high-quality, transparent and reliable service delivery.
“And while in most circumstances we deliver that, we believe we can and will continue to get better, and we are making the necessary changes to achieve that. It’s important for us to look closely at the data, but we also have to keep the bigger picture in mind.
“While we know our planning application timeframes aren’t where we’d like them to be, our planning team has been working hard on major projects like the Dan Murphy’s appeal, the campaign against the Western Renewables Link, and shaping the Future Hepburn township structure plans. We appreciate the community’s understanding as we balance these significant initiatives.”
Mr Thomas said the council had already implemented a range of initiatives to address some of the issues identified including:
Recruitment of planners and streamlining planning processes; continued investment in staff development and engagement to build a stronger, more stable workforce; improved technology and systems; and enhancement of transparency and accountability through regular reporting.
The council also came under fire for missed bins (11.6 per 10,000 households, above the state average of 6.3 per 10,000).
Words: Donna Kelly