Whanganui District Councillors during public submissions on the 2023/24 Annual Plan. Photo / Bevan Conley
Whanganui District Councillors during public submissions on the 2023/24 Annual Plan. Photo / Bevan Conley
Whanganui district councillors have been mulling over how best to hear the voice of the people as it launches two major pieces of planning.
And one long-serving councillor told a workshop the council needs to listen, rather than talk.
“We were talking to them, rather than them being given anopportunity to talk to us,” Vinsen said of the council’s ‘Community Korero’ sessions, held during the Annual Plan process.
“An attitude of ‘it’s their meeting, rather than our meeting’ would be helpful.”
The council’s Long Term Plan is due in mid-2024, and a draft of its Leading Edge Strategy update should land by November this year.
A Long Term Plan is prepared every three years to detail where the district aims to be in the following decade, what is needed to get there and how much it will cost.
The Leading Edge Strategy, introduced in 2014 and revised in 2018, aims to make Whanganui “an energised, united and thriving district offering abundant opportunities for everyone”.
Whanganui Mayor Andrew Tripe speaks at a council 'Community Korero' event earlier this year. Photo / Bevan Conley
Councillor Rob Vinsen said in the past, a lot of submitters shouldn’t have had the opportunity to speak to the council.
What they were talking about hadn’t been relevant to the plan in question and staff should have diverted them to the relevant committee, Vinsen said.
“There are people in the community who feel like it’s their opportunity to get all the councillors in a room and [say], ‘Here I am today, giving you the annual report of the women’s network’ or whatever.
“I think we could filter them even more than what we’ve done.”
Council policy manager Elise Broadbent said she would caution against diverting anyone who wanted to speak.
“In terms of our democratic process, transparency and making the council available to all people, I would encourage all people to come and speak.
“My team does a lot of work behind the scenes contacting submitters where we think perhaps there is information that would be valuable for them to have before they submit.”
Councillor Michael Law said elected members needed to know why they were there before they could look at who they were serving and what problems they were fixing.
The council usually heard from people who were familiar with its process and felt strongly about certain issues, councillor Philippa Baker-Hogan said.
She didn’t want to engage consultants too much in a time when rates restraint was needed.
Engagement needed to be led by elected members, Baker-Hogan said.
Councillor Kate Joblin said one group that had been under-represented in the past was young parents.
They were “the hardest to get to” because they were the busiest.
“I wonder if we could be a bit intentional about going to where they are - childhood centres, music groups for children, library readings.
“They have a vested interest in the future of Whanganui. We would love to see more Charlottes [Melser, a fellow councillor] around the table.”
Council communications and marketing manager Sarah Pomeroy Pomeroy said there had been a “seeding of awareness” on the Long Term Plan through the Annual Plan and rates processes.
One-on-one meetings on the Leading Edge Strategy were held with community leads and a communications and engagement strategy had been drafted.
Pomeroy said members of the public could sign up to the council’s online community panel - ‘Our District, Your Say’.
“By the end of this week, we will have webpages up for both of these projects.”
Mike Tweed is an assistant news director and multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.
