The Inland Rail project has progressed to the next stage in planning with a Wangaratta councillor saying "let's get on with it".
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Councillor Ashlee Fitzpatrick spoke in support of Wangaratta council's decision to approve the Australian Rail Track Corporation's (ARTC) request to commence the state approval process for works at Glenrowan and Wangaratta.
Councillor Irene Grant also supported the request stating that it was important to begin this next stage of the process.
"There's been a huge amount of work that's been done in this space and I think it's now important for council to give approval to this planning application so that we can progress this project and provide certainty to ARTC to move forward," Cr Grant said.
"There's still a lot of work that's got to be done in terms of what the final outcome will be."
This approval was given with the understanding that ARTC would satisfy a number of conditions and that council supported a number of proposals in principle.
The first of these conditions was that ARTC continue to engage in meaningful consultations with the Wangaratta and Glenrowan communities. Council supported in principle the proposal for the Wangaratta station precinct as well as works on the Green Street Bridge.
Council also supported the replacement of Beaconsfield Parade Bridge in Glenrowan under the condition that the project satisfies criteria set by Heritage Victoria.
Considerations for Heritage Victoria include the cumulative impact on the Glenrowan Bridges Project and the Ned Kelly Glenrowan Project.
Wangaratta council also voted to put their newly developed council and community vision plans on public display.
Following changes made to the local government act in 2020, council's are now required to engage in "deliberative engagement" with their communities when developing the council and community vision plan.
The community vision plan will be set in place for the next 12 years once adopted. Director of community wellbeing Jaime Chubb told the council that the community response to the new initiative had been positive.
"We started our extensive engagement with the community very early in this year and we have had significant buy-in from our community," Ms Chubb said.
"There's been over 1000 surveys completed."
