MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire councillors have voted to bring back joint planning meetings after they were scrapped without notice early in the current council term.
The decision was made following advocacy from Cr David Gill who put up a notice of motion calling for the return of the regular joint statutory and strategic ward planning meetings that previously kept councillors informed about planning issues and permit applications in their wards.
These meetings, once held online every four to six weeks, were quietly discontinued at the start of the current council term following the October 2024 elections. Since then, councillors have received bi-monthly planning briefings instead.
Councillors successfully approved the notice of motion at their 5 November public meeting.
A management report will now be prepared for council’s January 2026 meeting to explore options for reinstating the planning sessions, including potential costs and staffing requirements.
Cr David Gill said the absence of meetings had left councillors less informed and less connected to planning issues affecting their communities.
“Online or teams meetings, as we used to call them, ward planning meetings were a regular feature of keeping councils up to date on planning issues and major planning permits in their wards until they were discarded without notice at the start of this council term,” he said.
“Both new and experienced councillors would benefit from ward planning updates and education about planning matters on a monthly or bi-monthly basis.
“I found them the best part of planning – understanding what happens in planning and knowing what the issues are, knowing what constantly occurs and what to look out for. It brings your attention, focuses attention on making your own merit decisions when they come to council.”
All councillors voted in favour of the motion except for Cr Stephen Batty who said he had been involved in such planning meetings within his Kackeraboite ward including two in the past six months with the shire’s senior directors and questioned whether “we need to formalise it”.
Mayor Cr Anthony Marsh said he supported the idea but noted he would prefer to see regional meetings rather than 11 individual ward meetings as it “would be a more efficient use of time”.
“I understand why these are important, but I think we’ve gone from six wards to 11. That’s a huge increase, and to do individual ward meetings I think you also lose some of that knowledge going to your neighbouring wards, which might be helpful in a regional sense,” he said.
Gill agreed, saying three or four wards could be grouped and that “bi-monthly planning meetings would be perfect – not too onerous, not too many a year”.
A shire report noted that reinstating the meetings could require the equivalent of one full-time senior staff member, depending on how frequently they were held and whether wards were grouped into regions.
But Gill challenged claims that resourcing would be a major issue, saying that in the past, such meetings were seen as beneficial to both councillors and officers.
If adopted, planning meetings would aim to provide councillors with more regular and detailed briefings on planning matters and re-establish what Gill described as a “vital part” of council’s decision-making process.
First published in the Mornington News – 18 November 2025