The Shaping Southern Downs Advisory Committee may not shape quite as much as previously intended after the council voted to limit its involvement to the council’s new planning scheme.
Cr Ross Bartley described the committee as ’just a talkfest’ and thought it was a huge waste of council officers’ time.
Deputy Mayor Sheryl Windle said she thought it had a purpose but ’got a bit mis-skewed’ and had lost its way a little.
Mayor Cr Melissa Hamilton said the council had to consider why, how and who it was engaging with.
“I would like us as a council to have a look at how we do community engagement. There are many more modern methods of approaching community engagement than formal committees,“ she said.
“For me it’s an opportunity to set the consultation process and body in a way that we truly endorse as a fresh council. The message I got during the campaign was that people were not happy with the method of appointment and also not happy with how it engaged.“
She said it would be helpful to see what was done in other councils and that the Southern Downs had to be strategic and operate in a more modern and flexible way.
Previously the corporate plan of the Shaping Southern Downs Advisory Committee was to advocate on behalf of the region’s communities by implementing effective community consultation processes and building confidence in communities by being visible and actively listening. Its other goal was to work to make public places and open spaces safe, well maintained and liveable.
