Cumberland Council is asking people who live, work or study in the area to have their say on how they want to be engaged during the development of Council’s future plans, policies and programs.
Councillors endorsed a draft Community Engagement Policy for Public Exhibition. The draft policy is now available for review and comment on Council’s website until 9 March 2018.
“Council is committed to engaging with its community and stakeholders through engagement processes that are conducted in an open, transparent and consistent manner,” Mayor Greg Cummings said.
“The first step is to establish principles that will guide all of Council’s community engagement practices, including the development of our Community Engagement Strategy.
“We have recommended three guiding principles, adapted from the Core Values and Code of Ethics produced by the International Association for Public Participation, who are world leaders in community engagement.
“We want to ensure those affected by a decision of Council are sought out and their involvement in the decision-making process is facilitated early on, where their input has the most influence.
“We want to ensure we are communicating clearly with members of the community about matters that affect them, what their scope of influence is and how they go about sharing their ideas.
“We’re committed to providing participants with the information they need to participate in a meaningful way, by ensuring that the community has far and equal access to community engagement activities.
“Ultimately the goal is that Council’s plans, policies and programs better reflect the interests and concerns of the community, and that we promote sustainable decisions by recognising and communicating the needs and interests of all participants, including decision-makers.
“If you want to help shape the future of Cumberland, please visit Council’s website and ‘Have Your Say’. We want the information collected as part of the Public Exhibition period to be as representative of the community as possible.”
Results of the public exhibition period and a Community Engagement Survey, will be reported back to Council later in the year, and help inform the development of a Community Engagement Strategy.
The draft strategy will also be placed on Public Exhibition for review and comment before being adopted and implemented by Council.
