FAQ

The Strategic Plan is the City of Hobart’s major planning document. It sets the City’s future direction based on our responsibilities and the aspirations of the local community, as expressed in the community vision, Hobart: A community vision for our island capital. All of the organisation’s work must respond to the outcomes and strategies outlined in the plan.

The Local Government Act 1993 requires all Tasmanian councils to have a strategic plan that covers a 10-year period.  

The City’s current Strategic Plan has guided its work since 2015.  The Local Government Act requires that council strategic plans be reviewed at least every four years. It was also crucial to update the Strategic Plan following the development and endorsement of Hobart: A community vision for our island capital in July 2018. In the vision document, the City of Hobart made a specific commitment to ensure strategic planning reflects the vision.

You can view the 2015 plan here. 

The community vision guides the City of Hobart’s work, so that we can help create the Hobart that communities want. 

The community vision was developed in collaboration with Hobart communities and stakeholders.  Over 1,100 contributions went into the document, which outlines what people value about Hobart today and what they aspire to for its future.

The vision, including full details about the engagement process, is available at hobartcity.com.au/Council/Strategies-and-plans/Hobart-A-community-vision-for-our-island-capital

The community vision guides our work so that Council decisions help create the Hobart the community wants for current and future generations.  The vision does not provide concrete outcomes or actions.

The City’s response to the community vision is to ensure that strategies, plans and policies are designed to implement and deliver on the values and aspirations in the vision. In essence, the Strategic Plan puts the vision into action. 

The community vision was a key source for the review of the Strategic Plan. The Strategic Plan is closely aligned with the vision statement, identity statements and pillars in the vision. The pillars of the vision, which express the categories of life in the city, are used in the Strategic Plan.The outcomes and strategies were written in a way that ensures they provide direction of the City’s work for the future based on these categories.

The process to create the vision included a community panel, a diverse group of 46 community members and business people from across the Hobart region. During their deliberations, the panel provided input on specific strategies for each pillar. Many of these strategies are reflected in the draft Strategic Plan.

An assessment of the 2015 Strategic Plan was undertaken at the start of the review process to see whether the strategies were still relevant, taking into account the community vision, economic, social and environmental conditions and any changes to the City’s services and operations. It was found that a number of strategies in the plan were still relevant while others had been extensively progressed. Those strategies that are still relevant have been included in the revised Strategic Plan.

Development of the plan started by considering the main source document; that is the 2015 Strategic Plan, the community vision and the input of the community panel.  Extensive consultation was then undertaken with elected members and staff at the City of Hobart. The Council determines the strategic direction for the Council and as part of this process identified challenges the city is likely to face over the next 10 years. Staff input helped to develop achievable outcomes and the strategies needed to meet them.

The most important part of any strategic plan is its implementation and how the progress against the plan is measured. To ensure that we can measure and report on the progress of the plan the development of a new strategic measurement system will start in July 2019.

From 2020-21 the City’s Annual Plan will detail the actions being taken to meet or work towards the outcomes in the Strategic Plan. Updates on performance against the annual plan are undertaken every quarter and reported to Council and then published.

When the consultation period closes all feedback will be collated and referred to Council for consideration before the plan is finalised. 

Hard copies are available at the Customer Service Centre at 16 Elizabeth Street, Hobart or Mathers House at 108-110 Bathurst Street, Hobart. Alternatively, please contact Paula Gudgeon on 6238 2570 or gudgeonp@hobartcity.com.au