Hume council has voted to adopt the final Hume Rural Strategy, to guide the future of rural areas in the municipality.
The strategy has been in the making for a few years, with consultations open from March 2020 to March 2021 – there were 63 submissions from on behalf of residents, landowners and government agencies during that time.
Hume’s rural areas encompass over 250 square kilometres, and the strategy aims to provide realistic responses to challenges in those areas, while maximising future opportunities, and includes 65 directions and actions.
The strategy was discussed at a council meeting on Monday, April 11, in which councillor Janet Sherry said the documents provided an “important framework” for community members to make choices for how they can use and manage their land.
Cr Sherry spoke of Hume as a peri-urban area – a zone of transition between rural and urban land uses – with a diverse range of lifestyles within it, making single strategy development hard.
“I believe that Hume’s rural strategy will provide some certainty to landholders in our peri-urban interface,” Cr Sherry said.
While councillor Trevor Dance supported the strategy, he said it was also paramount council do everything to support landholders who “through no fault of their own” had struggled to use their land.
“I support the council’s report, and I certainly support the green wedges, but with a caveat: we’ve got to really make sure we look after these land owners,” Cr Dance said.
Councillor Jodi Jackson said she would not support the strategy because she’d spent time with rural constituents who did not think it went far enough to ensure council had sought out the best outcomes for all residents in Hume.
“I have taken the time to discuss at length various issues where our rural constituents are affected by this strategy,” Cr Jackson said.
“While we understand that agriculture might not be a highly profitable activity for most, those residents that I have engaged with felt that that was no reason to support, through the strategy, what many… considered to be excessive and inappropriate developments.”
