Community Consultation Consultation

The public meeting on this was held last night at the Civic Centre. Given that budget meetings usually see 3 people attend I was pleased to see about 50 people ready to participate and share their views on what should be consulted and to what level should be expected. People also discussed the barriers that prevent participation and how they most likely to be inspired to participate. It came as no surprise that the more people are likely to be affected by change the higher the level of consultation they expect. As an example if the neighbors wished to build a 3 story building most people would want to know even to the extent of staff knocking on their doors. Some of the most contentious issues are  small and seemingly trivial to those dealing with them and yet to those involved the effects are real and worse than annoying. I remember a few years back when Council staff decided to change the direction of the community bus; it seemed such a good idea and was if everyone wanted to go to Unley Central. However, for those using the bus just to get to Woolworths it was a disaster. This took well over a year to resolve and return to a 2 way service.