Significance and Engagement Policy consultation opens

How should Council listen to you?

How should Council determine the significance of decisions or proposals?

These are two fundamental questions Waikato District Council is asking our community as consultation opens on our proposed Significance and Engagement Policy this week.

The Significance and Engagement Policy helps Council decide how significant decisions, proposals, issues or projects are. Based on this, the Council determines how much community engagement is needed, and if formal consultation is required.

But some decisions, like long-term plans, bylaws and other plans, require us to ask our communities what they think.

Engagement is defined as the process of listening to inform decision making, and is often informal, fluid and built on relationships.

Corporate Planning Manager Nicole Hubbard says the proposed policy introduces a simple table that shows the level of engagement needed for items of low, medium or high significance.

“We’d really like people to look at our engagement options to see if they line up with their thinking, or have suggestions about better ways to engage with them,” she says.

Significance is defined as the degree of importance of an issue, proposal, decision or matter.

Council will assess the significance of any proposal as part of its decision-making process on a case-by-case basis.

Criteria for assessment include: is there a legal requirement to consult; the level of financial impact; likely impact on mana whenua; likely effect on the level of service and the level of community interest.

Your feedback on the proposed Significance and Engagement Policy will help inform Council’s criteria for how interested the community is on different issues.

“Basically, we’re looking at simplifying this policy as much as possible. It is an important policy because it impacts all Council operations, as every decision or proposal must be assessed against it,” says Nicole.

“We really want to make our engagement activities as effective as possible, so we’d appreciate people taking the time to have a look and share their feedback with us.”

To get involved in the consultation please click here.