Are you being heard?

Our Council has a busy year ahead. We will be considering some big changes that could affect everyone in the District.

It is important to us to make sure everyone in our District is kept up to date about the things important to them, and they are given the opportunity to engage, be listened to, and to shape the place they live.

In order to do this, we need to hear from our community – that’s you.

What are we doing?

Over the next four weeks, our team will be reaching out to as many people as we can. We'll be approaching community groups, businesses, schools, and individuals to chat directly with them.

The information we get will help develop our communications and engagement strategy. This strategy outlines how we will talk to and hear from the community, as well as the steps we will take to improve communication and engagement.

What do we mean by engagement?

Community engagement is a process that supports public decision-making. It is the process of involving people in decisions affecting their lives. It can include

• Sharing information and providing updates
• Seeking feedback and gathering input
• Dialogue and deliberation

It is also sometimes referred to as public participation.

How can you get involved?

This consultation is now closed. Click here to see the full results.

What Next?

Here’s how your input is being put into action:

• Creating Simpler Processes: We will ensure that the information we send out is simple, concise, and easy to understand. We will clarify how you can give feedback and what your feedback can influence, and we will advertise how to get involved more widely. We will create more straightforward tools to give feedback (such as more short surveys, interactive voting tools like in our current engagement, and the ability to give feedback orally or in person.
• Closing the Loop: You’ve told us you don’t feel heard, and that’s something we’re addressing. As a comms team, we have started ensuring all emails and direct messages get a response and a follow-up. Our communications and engagement strategy will work closely with all departments across the Council to improve our response times and response rates. We will also put out more results like this via web, email and Ensign around future consultations and surveys so you can see how your input has impacted our decisions or, if it hasn’t – why.
• Tailoring Our Approach: People need to be able to give feedback and receive information in various ways. We’ve learned that people want us to post more informative content on social media, diversify our channels, send more emails, and increase the information we put in the Ensign. We will start doing all these things immediately and make a full plan as part of the new strategy.

The full communications and engagement strategy draft will be available later in the year (2025). Your feedback has been essential to making this happen. We’re committed to making your voice central to our decision-making process. The document will be a public document you can give us feedback on, and hold us accountable to.