Key projects and activities
The adoption of our Integrated Planning and Reporting Framework ensures we have alignment of all our planning activities. Our plans and strategies guide how we will address housing issues and climate change, and support community health and wellbeing into the future.
The Glen Eira Council Plan 2021–2025 is our overarching strategic plan outlining the outcomes we seek to achieve over the next four years. It shapes how we will plan for the future, deliver highly valued services and infrastructure and work collaboratively with and for the community.
The Glen Eira Community Wellbeing Plan 2021–2025 aims to address the impact of climate change on health and wellbeing, increase healthy eating and active living, reduce tobacco-related harm, and address violence prevention.
Our draft Housing Strategy aims to manage the needs of our growing and changing population, through more housing and a greater variety of housing types. We will consider the final Housing Strategy for adoption in late 2022.
Our Smart City Roadmap guides us in using digital technologies for liveability, sustainability, proactivity and collaboration.
Community engagement at Glen Eira aims to be meaningful, inclusive and effective. Our Community Engagement Policy and Strategy is our promise to undertake best-practice engagement.We used different types of engagement throughout the year to ensure we heard from diverse groups, such as children and young people or groups at risk of not being represented. Community engagement for our Housing Strategy included drop-in sessions, online surveys, webinars, phone calls and written submissions.
Community engagement helped set our Budget 2022–2023 priorities via:
- the Glen Eira Deliberative Citizens’ Panel;
- an interactive budget simulation tool; and
- recommendations from a group representing residents and stakeholders.
In developing our 10-year Asset Plan, we conducted three stages of community engagements, including an online survey, in-person deliberative panel sessions and an online review of our draft Asset Plan 2022.
We committed $26.9 million for new and improved open space in identified areas over the next four years. Some of our key deliverables this year include:
- the opening of Aileen Avenue Park, Caulfield South;
- the purchase of 64 and 66 Mackie Road, Bentleigh East, to extend the Mackie Road Reserve
- improvements made to the Djerring Trail linear space;
- acquiring three properties at 15,17 and 19 Porter Road, Bentleigh to create a new park; and
- acquiring 751 Centre Road, Bentleigh East for a future urban open space.
Our Climate Emergency Response Strategy 2021–2025 sets out how we will respond to the climate emergency and work with governments and the community to drive strong action.In our response to the climate emergency, all Council-owned buildings and infrastructure are now powered with 100 per cent renewable energy through the Victorian Energy Collaboration. We are constructing all-electric buildings at Carnegie Memorial Swimming Pool and Murrumbeena Community Hub.
We approved the Glen Eira Integrated Water Management Plan | Dhumbali W’urneet Gadhaba, which directs us on how to manage water in our environment. We also continue to support Glen Eira residents to be more sustainable through initiatives like our Climate Conversations program.
We are committed to governing the City of Glen Eira in a democratic, open and responsible manner. Meaningful engagement is critical to good decision-making, allows for two-way feedback and positive outcomes. The endorsement of our Community Engagement Strategy 2022–2026 outlines our commitment to actively engaging the community through best-practice consultation. During the year, we reduced the number of community engagements in response to the COVID-19 pandemic before slowly resuming safe ways to engage with our community.
The Community Engagement Strategy is available on our website.
We collect recyclables through fortnightly collections of our combined food waste/green waste bin and our recycling bin for glass, plastics, metal and paper. We also provide residents with three hard rubbish, branch and cardboard collections per year for larger amounts of waste. Glen Eira recycles nearly half of its waste, and our food waste recycling service allows residents to recycle food waste that would have otherwise gone to landfill.
For more information, visit the Rubbish and recycling page on our website.
2021–22 62% 33,950 tonnes
2020–21 49% 27,493 tonnes
2019–20 49% 27,079 tonnes
2018–19 46% 23,810 tonnes
Our planning aims to balance population growth with enhancing the unique character and heritage of our City. We are responsible for applying planning laws through the permit process, which aims to ensure that development in Glen Eira:
- is suitable, safe and environmentally sensitive;
- preserves significant heritage areas;
- complies with planning laws; and
- contributes to the character of an area without impacting nearby residents.
Bringing our diverse community together is one of our top priorities. We held a range of cultural events, festivals and exhibitions throughout the year including; live local musicians at two Rolling Shows events; National Reconciliation Week; Glen Eira Christmas Carols in the Gardens at Rippon Lea Estate; International Women’s Day; interactive immersive events such as The CUBE in Carnegie Community Space; and our major curated exhibitions in Council’s Gallery.
COVID-19 restrictions and lockdowns led to many major cultural events being postponed. In response, online events were programmed, including Live Sunday Sessions featuring performances by local Glen Eira talent, as well as conversations with artists, curators and local historians. National Reconciliation Week and our largest annual event, the Glen Eira Storytelling Festival were also presented online. 3,508 people attended our online community events in 2021–22.
As restrictions eased, many events returned to face-to-face. We resumed regular events such as carers’ exercise classes and Fun and Friendship afternoons, while the Community Awards 2022 returned to Glen Eira Town Hall. We also held events to recognise occasions such as Refugee Week and World Elder Abuse Day.
For more information, visit the Arts and culture page on our website.
Glen Eira Libraries offer welcoming, innovative and engaging services and programs that provide opportunities for literacy, learning and creativity for everyone in our community. As at June 2022, we had 53,822 library members.
Our library users read, browse and borrow, study, connect through technology, and discover and learn with our diverse programs. Our collections include books for all ages and interests, talking books, DVDs, magazines and more.
During 2021–22, we continued to adapt effectively to changing situations around COVID-19 lockdowns. We are proud of the positive community response to our efforts. Our expanded home library service continued to supply books to our most vulnerable and isolated community members. We also continued our contactless click and collect service when possible, for members who prefer print over digital.
Access to services was available online 24/7 in response to reduced branch opening hours and closures. Members benefitted from a larger range of e-books, e-magazines and other electronic resources. Our Library@Home program of on-demand content also continued with high levels of engagement attracting over 4,000 views.
We ran more than 90 online events in 2021–22, which were attended by 4,793 people. Events included ‘in-conversation’ talks with local and international experts and authors, art classes, wellbeing sessions, gardening tips, and science, craft and cooking workshops.
As restrictions eased in early 2022, many events returned to face-to-face. We held 226 in-person events in 2021–22, including jewellery, craft and writing workshops, origami and mosaic classes, BabyTime and StoryTime sessions and a National Simultaneous Storytime event. In 2021-22, 11,597 people attended our in-person events.
To join our library service, visit Glen Eira Libraries website.
2021–22 16,390*
2020–21 8,651*
2019–20 51,464
2018–19 72,259
*Includes attendance to our online events.
Glen Eira Youth Services offers a range of events, programs and support services for young people aged 10 to 25. These assist in maintaining young people’s health and wellbeing and help them connect with each other and their community.
Our range of school programs includes: Pride in schools — an initiative that helps support the establishment of school LGBTIQA+ support groups; Moving Up – a program for students transitioning from grade 6 to year 7; School Engagement Program – a new program giving students the opportunity to discuss community issues with students from other schools in Glen Eira.
Our range of community programs includes: Youth Climate and Sustainability Action Group — 12 volunteers who aim to advocate and educate for a more sustainable community; Youth Events and Leadership Team — 10 volunteers who organise and lead the production of major Glen Eira youth events; Living Life and Skills — a series of workshops offering information and training around employment and key life skills; Drop-In sessions — a weekly casual participation program that encourages social connection; Your Story — a series of workshops to help young people build skills and share their stories.
We ran 105 targeted community programs in 2021–22 and connected with 2,103 young people.
With face-to-face youth services closed during the State of Emergency, we continued to support our vulnerable young people with online community programs and virtual support sessions through: online parent information nights, such as Moving Up — supporting their child’s transition to high school, and the Cyber Safety Project. The service continued to provide events engaging young people, such as the Youth Art Exhibition: Unity in Community, for which we received more than 220 entries.
We supported a total of 5,275 young people across the year.
The Youth Advisory Committee continued to advise Council when developing initiatives, strategies and plans impacting young people.
For more information, visit the Glen Eira Youth Services page on our website.
2021–22 4,740
2020–21 3,954*
2019–20 9,490**
2018–19 10,161
*Includes attendance to our online events.
**Live events not permitted under COVID-19 restrictions.
Immunisation protects children and the community from harmful and contagious diseases. We provide free vaccinations to the Glen Eira community as part of the National Immunisation Schedule.
Our main focus is immunising children aged six weeks to four years and adolescents aged 12 to 16. We also provide catch-up immunisations for people under 19 who have moved to Australia from overseas. In 2021, we introduced an online appointment booking system for community immunisation sessions. Our immunisation coverage for children aged five and under is an average of 94.06 per cent. The state average is 94.03 per cent. This is a slight decrease of less than one per cent since 2020–21.
Our teams delivered the first round of the School Immunisation Program in March this year where we administered 1,212 vaccines in secondary schools, an increase of 166 on the previous year.
For more information, visit the Immunising your child page on our website.
2021–22 6,625
2020–21 7,069*
2019–20 11,005
2018–19 10,590**
*COVID-19 lockdown limited our immunisations.
**Immunisations decreased as the HPV9 vaccination has been improved and now only requires two doses to be given in the adolescent school program, down from the previous three doses.
Our Delivered Meals service provides the benefit of regular cooked meals to eligible older residents. The service caters to their specific dietary needs including vegetarian, modified and diabetic meals. The meals are delivered chilled for reheating and are comprised of soup, a main meal and dessert. The meals are delivered by our team of volunteers and administered by the staff at our Leila Road Centre.
The service provides food security and informal health monitoring, which was critical during COVID-19. The service also provided emergency food and grocery relief for all residents of Glen Eira affected by COVID-19 who were unable to get to the supermarket due to isolation.
A total of 316 people used this service during 2021–22, consuming a total of 24,987 meals.
The service also provides lunch to participants of our Social Support Program. The Program provides opportunities for friendship through activities such as exercise, outings, table games, music therapy and Tai Chi. Sharing a meal with others is also an integral part of the Program. During 2021–22, more than 60 people used this service and we provided 1,200 meals to participants.
Several alternative pre-prepared meal providers have emerged in recent years, giving clients more options. Nevertheless, our committed team of volunteers delivered an average of 2,080 meals each month.
For more information, visit the Delivered meals page on our website.
2021–22 26,187
2020–21 33,026
2019–20 29,623
2018–19 37,900
Combined Delivered Meals service and Social Support Program group meals.
Our in-home and social support program assists older residents to remain safe and independent in their own home, while providing opportunities to stay connected with their community, family and friends. The services include:
In-home support service – provides essential cleaning and assistance with household tasks to help residents maintain a healthy home. The service helps with tasks that residents cannot do on their own, such as meal preparation and unaccompanied shopping, due to illness, frailty or a disability. In-home support also offers personal care services, such as showering, dressing and grooming. The service made 1,400 in-home support visits in 2021–22.
Home maintenance and home modification services – help our older residents to maintain their independence, and promote their safety, accessibility, health and wellbeing within their home environment. Maintenance includes door and window lock repairs, light globe changes, gutter cleaning, and smoke detector installation. Modifications include adding rails in showers, changing steps and lowering furniture as assessed by the Occupational Therapist. The services made 2,433 home maintenance visits and 375 home modifications in 2021–22.
Community transport service – assists older residents with limited access or difficulty using public transport. The service includes home pick-up and transport to community locations such as shopping centres, libraries, GESAC and senior citizen centres. The community transport service provided transport for 140 residents, totalling 3,105 trips in 2021–22.
Social support groups for older residents wanting to participate in group activities such as exercise, gardening, outings, and table games. Group activities help residents to maintain their independence, while offering great physical, social and emotional benefits. The Explorers Program allows independent or socially isolated residents to get out and about around Melbourne for scenic drives, concerts, picnics and art gallery visits. There were 490 social support activities in 2021–22.
2021–22 61,568
2020–21 61, 190
2019–20 91,385
2018–19 117,271
Being green and leafy is an important part of Glen Eira’s character. We have increased the number of street trees from 30,000 to more than 48,000 over the past 20 years. In 2021–22 we planted 1,008 new and replacement trees across our parks and streets and regularly monitored the health of these trees to ensure they are thriving and do not pose any risk to public safety or property.
For more information, visit the Street trees page on our website
2021–22 1,008
2020–21 1,854
2019–20 950*
2018–19 2,077
*Limited plantings due to COVID-19 restrictions.