Three Melbourne councils — Hume City Council, the City of Whittlesea and Mitchell Shire Council — have signed a Regional Partnership agreement that will see them collaborate on the planning and delivery of a proposed new city, Cloverton, in Melbourne’s north.

Cloverton’s catchment area will be the major employment and service centre for the growing suburbs of Mickleham, Kalkallo, Donnybrook, Beveridge and Wallan, with an estimated 380,000 residents and 50,000 jobs once complete.

It will effectively become a new city, providing shopping, health and education services as well as recreational facilities.

The State Government has designated it a Metropolitan Activity Centre, similar to Dandenong, Ringwood, Broadmeadows, Epping and Box Hill.

Leaders and representatives of the three LGAs held a joint meeting last week to endorse the principles of how the partner councils will work together.

“By formalising the partnership between the three councils, we commit to a clear vision about how we will work together and we send a clear message to the Victorian Government that we want to partner with them to plan and deliver an exciting, innovative and sustainable new city not seen in the outer suburbs before,” said Mitchell Shire Council Mayor, Fiona Stevens.

“As a designated Metropolitan Activity Centre, it is vital that we also work closely with the Victorian Government to ensure the establishment of Cloverton is underpinned by high quality planning and development,” added City of Whittlesea Chair Administrator, Lydia Wilson.