July 3rd, 2025Your say…
Hepburn Shire is on life support.
Whatever you think about assisted dying for people, the shire council should be allowed to die with dignity – put out of its misery.
They can still pick up the garbage, do some road work, but they are not doing other things that need to be done. One of these is called statutory planning.
If you need to make a change to your property, you apply for a permit. You wait for months, and months. And then more months.
This can be solved quickly. It needs management performance. They complain about lack of money, but really what is needed is competence. The ability to get the important things done.
On the internet you will find “Know Your Council”. It shows the performance of your council compared with the other 56 councils in Victoria. A few years ago Hepburn came near the top for planning. Now it is near the bottom.
The short-term solution is to get someone in there to clear out the planning backlog. The longer term solution is that Hepburn Shire is too small to be viable. It needs to be broken up and the pieces added on to bigger shires. Hepburn Shire RIP.
- Ian Goudie, Trentham
