The parliamentary inquiry into environmental infrastructure pointed to multiple Bendigo submissions as well as others from across the state.

Bendigo's council told the inquiry that it and other local governments often struggled to find grant funding for environmental infrastructure.

"We certainly find that a lot of grant opportunities are coming from sport and recreation and there are very limited opportunities for the development of public open space," the council's then-manager of parks and open space Paul Gangell told the inquiry last April.

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The council is currently dealing with decades of planning decisions that have left many disadvantaged people exposed to urban "hot spots" with less established trees supplying shade.

"Inappropriate city planning without mitigating urban heat and considering equality may unintentionally expose many members of the community to an unacceptable level of harm," the council conceded in a 2020 policy document intended to help reverse the problem.

The same document found rapidly growing suburbs like Epsom were also exposed and that work would be needed as climate change intensified heat-related health problems.

People moving to those areas are part of a population surge into regional areas that is expected to continue well into the 2050s, the council expects.

The latest parliamentary inquiry did not ask Bendigo's councils for thoughts on using school grounds for extra public space but regional Victoria was named as an area that could benefit from an education land rethink.

Multiple councils in Melbourne suburbs told the inquiry they wished it was easier to make agreements with schools about opening up ground for wider community use.

It has also heard other groups opening up land for new public uses including a golf course and cemetery in Melbourne.

The practice had only had mixed success because it sometimes brought groups with very different needs into conflict.

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The inquiry nevertheless recommended the government review rules and definitions on restricted public land to help more groups considering changes of their own, and to streamline the negotiation process.

Other groups that gave evidence to the inquiry called on the government to do a "stocktake" of Victorian suburbs that needed more open space.

The Town and Country Planning Association recommended the stocktake be followed by the introduction of basic standards for environmental infrastructure.

The state government is currently considering the inquiry's 57 recommendations and 42 findings, including ideas to sort out contaminated land in places like Bendigo.

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