Horizons Regional Council’s Long-Term Plan consultation is not a box-ticking exercise: Rachel Keedwell

Horizons Regional Council chairwoman Rachel Keedwell says decisions made around the council table have a real-life impact on not just your wallet but on the future that faces our children and grandchildren.

Dr Rachel Keedwell is the chairwoman of Horizons Regional Council. The views expressed here are her own.

OPINION

Is putting in a submission to a council Long-Term Plan (LTP) worth the effort? From my perspective as a councillor who recently listened to or read more than 500 submissions to our LTP, the answer is a resounding yes. We received a huge range of submissions and I feel most of them were thoughtfully written and provided constructive feedback.

A valuable aspect of hearing from submitters is that people can highlight issues and impacts of our proposed plans that we may not have been aware of. By making us aware of unintended consequences, we can make changes to the plan to address concerns.

Real-life experiences from submitters can provide a perspective on the services we provide that councillors may not be familiar with. For example, we heard from several submitters who described what it is like to live in a car-centric transport network when you can’t or don’t drive, and how public transport options can be incredibly limited if you are in that situation. We heard how our proposed changes to some of the rating systems had unintended consequences for properties with high capital values, or for rural properties with drainage schemes that were ending up with water from upstream urban developments.

More than 50 people attended the hearing in support of one particular submission, and the fact that people took time out of their evening to travel to the hearing to support that submitter really drills home to councillors the realities that our proposals pose for our communities.

If you have not participated in a council process like this before, I encourage you to do so. I know people are busy and can’t always find the time to read the documentation and then write a submission, but sometimes it is really important that you do, particularly if there are some big changes proposed. The decisions we make around the council table have a real-life impact on not just your wallet but on the future that faces our children and grandchildren.

Written submissions are great, particularly if they clearly spell out the concerns and what changes are sought, but spoken submissions are even better, in my opinion. If you come and speak to your submission, councillors can then ask you further questions to really understand your concerns and to consider any alternative ideas you put forward.

I found submissions that had the most impact for me often started off acknowledging what we had got right. We are much more likely to be receptive to your criticisms and suggestions if they are constructive and build on acknowledgement of what works – councillors are only human, after all.

I also found it helpful when submitters were not only clear with what they were unhappy about, but also accepted which aspects could not be changed and focused on providing suggestions in areas that could be altered. Some people put a lot of thought into suggestions for how to do things differently.

Another aspect that was helpful was when it was clearly articulated what changes were requested, how much money was required and how their request could be funded.

These are just a few reflections on the process of going through our Long-Term Plan with the community. Consultation on the plan is definitely not a box-ticking exercise – the outcome was not predetermined because we made substantial changes to aspects of our plan in direct response to the submissions that we received.

I’m very grateful to all those people who took the time to put in a submission to make sure we heard what they thought.