24 October 2014Waipa ratepayers have commended the council for its ongoing efforts to better engage the community via its Let's Get Engaged campaign, but say there's still plenty of room for improvement.
The feedback came via a survey on the council's draft significance and engagement policy. By law, the council must develop a policy by December. The policy will help make it easier for Waipa people to have their say before council decisions are made.
Four councils undertook the survey at the same time with 114 people responding from the Waipa district (compared to 170 responding in Hamilton City). Of the Waipa respondents, more than half said they rarely or never' participated in council decision-making processes, mainly because they didn't hear about opportunities to be involved or didn't believe getting involved would make any difference.
Of those who did participate (for example, by making a submission) only just over half (53 per cent) were satisfied with the process.
More than 60 per cent of people said the council should involve the community more in decision-making but a further third said community needed more involvement only on the important things. Some people preferred to provide feedback on draft proposals or be involved when options were being analysed, but a similar number wanted to be involved much earlier.
When asked how they would prefer to provide feedback on council proposals, nearly half preferred to comment online via facebook, twitter and using other internet tools. In Hamilton, 85 per cent of people preferred to comment on-line.
In the Waipa survey, 57 per cent said they preferred to provide feedback via written submissions and surveys. Local newspapers were also considered important communication tools.
In other feedback, survey respondents urged the council to use plain English' and less jargon when communicating and to make more use of other tools including focus groups. They also wanted more effort to go into acknowledging those who had taken time to comment and wanted to ensure iwi views were heard.
The draft significance and engagement policy will now be amended to take account of the feedback and will go back to council for further comment in early November.
Media enquiries to Jeanette Tyrrell (on behalf of Council) 027 5077 599