THE COMMUNITY
Engaging with the community Community engagement is the act of informing, consulting, involving, collaborating with and empowering residents on issues that may affect their lives. It is the foundation of good governance and allows us to identify local ideas, concerns and opportunities by involving the public. We adopted the Community Engagement Strategy in October 2019. The benefits of community engagement include: • better project and service delivery • improved quality of policy being developed • strengthened relationships with individuals and community groups • a process to ensure council is meeting local needs • opportunities to discuss complex and emerging issues • opportunities for diverse voices to be heard.
Major Projects During 2019/2020 we consulted with the community on: • Georges River LEP 2020 • Changes to your rates (proposed rates restructure) • Georges River Draft Regional Aquatic Site Suitability and Feasibility Study • Community Engagement Strategy • Oatley Bowling Club Site Master Plan and Plan of Management • Operational Plan and Draft Delivery Program • Library Strategy • Innovation Strategy • Create Georges River Cultural Strategy. We engage with the community in a variety of ways, including direct mail, notices in newspapers, subscription emails/newsletters, letter drops, face-toface briefings, telephone surveys, and workshops. In addition, we used our online platform Your Say for 65 community consultations, which involved 3,132 ‘active engaged’ participants and 21,329 ‘aware’ participants. Registered Your Say members increased by 62 per cent (809) during 2019/20. Due COVID-19 restrictions, we
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Georges River Council // Annual Report 2019/20
changed face-to-face engagements to interactive online webinars for the Draft Georges River LEP. Changes to your rates information reached more than 2.3 million people through 79 activities or events in a twomonth period. This program included online, on social media, in newspapers and newsletters, in community languages as well as a brochure and survey to all households and businesses in the LGA. Face-to-face information sessions and drop-in events were led by our General Manager and included targeted sessions for business and the Chinese-speaking community. We obtained community feedback through four main channels: • face-to-face - 288 people were reached through eight events. • surveys – the return of 6,363 surveys represents a response rate of 11.86 per cent on 53,646 feedback packs (letter, brochure and survey). • Your Say - 50 people provided submissions online and a further 50 people wrote submissions by email and mail. • randomised telephone survey of 600 households. In all, 3,220 comments were received and analysed. Council’s top 10 online projects with the highest participation were: • Changes to your rates (662) • Draft Georges River LEP 2020 (350) • Christmas lights competition 2019 (285) • Oatley Bowling Club Site Master Plan and Plan Of Management (240) • Community safety survey (189) • Georges River Draft Regional Aquatic Site Suitability and Feasibility Study (156) • Moore Reserve Plan of Management and Master Plan (130) • Beverly Hills @ Night (116) • Closure of Kogarah War Memorial Pool (Carss Park Pool) (114) • Hurstville @ Night (97)
