We’re excited to share the Huon Valley Council’s plans for 2025, which have been shaped by ideas and feedback from you, our community.
These plans, detailed in our Strategic Plan and Annual Plan (available here), focus on making the Huon Valley a great place for everyone who lives, works, or visits here.
Our team is made up of dedicated individuals, including elected Councillors, staff members, contractors, and volunteers, many of whom proudly call the Huon Valley their home.
Who are we?
The Council has undergone changes to its staff and structures during 2024.
Our departments cover the following:
Executive Services:
This department is headed by our CEO, Lachlan Kranz and incorporates the areas of medical services, childcare services, waste management, community engagement and General Counsel including legal and governance.
Community and Place:
This department is headed by our Director, Lyle Ground and covers social resilience, environmental sustainability, environment health, emergency management, strategic land use planning, plumbing, building and planning assessment.
Infrastructure and Assets:
This department is led by Frank Chen as the Director, and covers the areas of property and recreation services, municipal inspectors/compliance, development engineering, works depot and technical services.
People and Corporate Services:
This department underpins the activities above and the Director is Patty Johnson. This area incorporates finance and budget, people and safety, media and communications, innovation and technology, rates and rating system, internal policies and procedures and administration services (including customer service).
Management Team:
Whilst our management team has a diversity of backgrounds, the majority of staff live in the Huon Valley. For an understanding of our current team here are some statistics:
| Number | Live in HV | % | |
| Staff – headcount | |||
| Males | 84 | 53 | 63 |
| Females | 134 | 119 | 89 |
| Other | |||
| Management team – headcount | |||
| Males | 10 | 8 | 80 |
| Females | 9 | 8 | 89 |
| Other | |||
| Years with HVC (avg per person) | 6.21 | 6.87 |
Note: Management team includes Councillors and Executive Leadership Team and all numbers include those that are part time, full-time, permanent and fixed term.
As you can see, many members of our team both live and work here in the Huon Valley. This means we’re personally invested in making the valley the best place it can be to live and work.
What’s Coming Up for Council?
Here’s what we’re focusing on to make the Huon Valley even more vibrant, connected, and sustainable:
Looking After Our Valley
We all know how special our corner of the world is – with its unique character and local identity. That’s why we’re pioneering a transformative approach to strategic planning that places communities at the heart of our decision-making process. By combining rich local and regional data with meaningful community engagement, our Liveability Framework represents a fundamental shift in how we approach planning and place-making. This new methodology isn’t just about development; it’s about understanding, protecting, and enhancing the elements that our communities truly value. Whether it’s preserving local heritage, improving settlement design, or strengthening neighbourhood connections, our framework ensures that every decision is made with both current and future generations in mind. Through this data-informed, community-centred approach, we’re working to create places that don’t just function well, but truly enhance the quality of life for all residents.
Planning for the Future
In 2025, we are embarking on several significant planning projects that will shape the future of our valley. Our immediate focus is on completing vital structure planning work for both the Huonville Link Road residential area and Cygnet, alongside a comprehensive Rural Living Densification Study. These foundational projects will inform our future planning decisions and help manage growth sustainably. As the year progresses, we’ll initiate important heritage work, beginning with a valley-wide heritage study in July that will help preserve and protect our region’s unique character. We’re also launching two transformative long-term projects in July 2025: an Affordable and Diverse Housing Plan to address our community’s housing needs, and an Integrated Transport Plan to better connect our Huon Valley communities. These initiatives demonstrate our commitment to thoughtful, community-centred planning that balances growth with preservation of our valley’s special qualities.
Better Roads, Drainages, and Community Spaces
From improving our roads to creating places where people can come together and enjoy themselves, we’re investing in updating and maintaining the things you use every day. Road-related customer service requests and complaints reduced by 45% last year so we know our program of planned maintenance and renewal is working and we remained focussed on delivering the basic core services properly.
This year will see a continuation of major asset renewal and upgrades. We were excited to reopen the refreshed Port Huon Pool in February 2025. We will soon complete the rejuvenated playground at Burtons Reserve and deliver grant-funded mobility projects such as Mary Street Cygnet pedestrian crossing and new footpath closing the missing link between Huonville and Marguerite Street, Ranelagh.
This is also our 3rd year of major unsealed road drainage upgrades which are designed to improve the longevity of our unsealed roads as we adapt to future weather patterns with more short duration, intense rainfall events.
Supporting Local Businesses and Jobs
The Huon Valley is home to so many fantastic small businesses, farms, and tourism operators. We want to help them grow while preserving the unique character of our region as well as enticing those businesses that will add to the community.
Reducing Waste, Boosting Recycling
Let’s work together to make the Valley even cleaner! We’re rolling out new ways to manage waste and increase recycling so we can protect our beautiful backyard. 1,335 responses to our ‘Great Wheelie Bin Survey’ proves waste is a significant issue for our residents and we will use this information to plan and deliver sensible, affordable waste management solutions.
Medical Services
Council is proud to provide primary healthcare to our community in the far south. Despite the challenge of a worsening shortfall in General Practitioner doctors nationally, we are working hard to provide affordable, accessible healthcare at both our Geeveston and Dover practices. We are already returning better value for ratepayers and have recently secured our regional hospital beds at Dover for another 5 years. Our aim is now to maximise appointment availability while keeping the practice financially sustainable.
Improving our Governance, Transparency and Corporate Systems
Council is investing to improve and make more efficient its internal processes to improve governance decision making, allow our community to see and understand our decision making process and to upgrade our corporate systems.
For 2025, we are implementing a new Governance software which is internationally certified. This system will enhance and make more efficient governance activities across the Council which includes risk management and improved reporting to those charged with Governance which includes the Council’s Audit Panel that meets quarterly.
An upgrade to some of our corporate systems has commenced, we will be upgrading our Pathway rating and planning system along with our Finance, HR and payroll systems.
We are currently developing improvements and efficiencies using AI software that is held inhouse at Council. Don’t forget we also have Maree our new Chatbot, that will help you navigate our website, all you need to do is ask your question. Watch this space!
Listening to You – Your voice matters
Everything we do is about creating a community that works for everyone. We’ll keep holding forums, workshops, and surveys so you can share your ideas, concerns and have your say on what matters most. The only thing we ask of you, is to take the time to answer. You may have seen QR codes popping up at local facilities, please use your phone to respond. The questions are usually simple and provide us with your perspective for when Council makes important decisions.
This isn’t just about the Council – it’s about all of us. Your input shapes the direction we take and how we prioritise our work. We’re launching some exciting initiatives, like the 2025 Community Partnership Program, to collaborate with local groups and organisations on projects that benefit us all.
What’s Next?
We’ll keep you updated on how we’re going by sharing regular reports and updates on our website. Our commitment to you is to be open, honest, and transparent about how things are tracking.
Let’s make the Huon Valley the best place it can be – together! Whether it’s through a survey, a forum, or a quick chat with someone from the Council, we value what you have to say.
Stay in the Loop
Want to know more? Head to huonvalley.tas.gov.au to check out the Strategic Plan and Annual Plan.
In addition, every council meeting is streamed online and you can also come along to witness decision making in progress. You are welcome to ask questions either before the Council Meeting or at the meeting itself. We are trying very hard to be transparent in our dealings with the community. We have also increased our media presence by chatting frequently with Huon FM and providing updates in the Huon News.
You’ll also find us on Facebook – follow us for updates, announcements, and more ways to get involved.
We can’t wait to work with you all to achieve great things for the Huon Valley in 2025 and beyond!
Contact us anytime:
Got questions or ideas? We’d love to hear from you.
Phone: 03 6264 0300
Email: hvc@huonvalley.tas.gov.au