News

Community feedback on community engagement

22 July 2025

Our Community Engagement Policy outlines how and when we’ll genuinely include our community in decision making about matters that affect them. As part of our regular policy review processes, we recently invited community feedback on proposed changes to this Policy.

Changes to the Policy centred around when, why and how we engage with our community, with a view to making our consultation processes more transparent, easier to understand and participate in.

Feedback received between 8 May - 9 June 2025 via an online survey indicated a strong level of support for the proposed minor amendments.

While participation was low (25 participants), most feedback was positive with around 80% of participants supporting (at moderate, good or very good levels) the Policy definitions of scope ‘when we engage’ and community/stakeholders ‘who we engage with’. Around 70% were also in agreement with the approach to ‘when we won’t engage’ (out of scope).

Some suggestions for improvement to "when we won't engage" concerned communications and using previous community engagement data rather than undertaking new engagement. In response, we’ve adjusted this section to ensure that where projects are implemented without community engagement, an explanation will be provided. We have also clarified that recent (within 5 years) community engagement or research on a subject can only be used for decision making if circumstances are unchanged


Next steps:

Council will consider community feedback and the updated policy for adoption at its July 2025 meeting.

Council meeting 6.30pm, 29 July 2025