How will we be consulted

 

 

On Thursday the Auckland Council Governing Body will meet for the final time this year. In this final but crucial meeting though the Governing Body will vote thus set the draft 2015-2025 Long Term Plan for consultation next year. We (the citizens) get to have our say between January 23 and March 16 next year. A survey for transport funding options will also be sent out and I will cover that aspect of it in the next blog post.

Below is the Executive Summary, and Recommendations on the consultation for the Long Term Plan:

Long-term Plan 2015-2025 – Consultation process

File No.: CP2014/28578

 

Purpose

1. To approve the public consultation process for the Long-term Plan 2015-2025.

Executive Summary

2. Under the Local Government Act 2002, Auckland Council is required to follow the special consultative procedure to seek public feedback to inform the Long-term Plan 2015-2025.
3. The Council’s Long-term Plan (LTP) and Auckland Transport’s Regional Land Transport Plan (RLTP) are developed under a very similar timeline and cover largely the same transport issues.  Rather than consulting with Aucklanders on the same issues at the same time, this year a single consultation process will be used to seek Aucklanders views on transport and inform both the LTP and the RLTP. Auckland Transport staff have been working collaboratively with council staff to plan and deliver this integrated approach.
4. Recent changes to the Local Government Act 2002 provide council with more flexibility in how it consults with Aucklanders, in particular in how council can collect feedback and hear the views of Aucklanders. The recommended consultation process aligns to Auckland Council’s Significance and Engagement Policy and builds upon the successful operation of previous consultation processes.  It recommends a number of changes that satisfy legislative requirements while also enabling Aucklanders to engage in the public consultation process in a variety of ways to suit their personal preferences.
5. The key changes include:

• Increasing the public consultation period from one month to seven and a half weeks, commencing 23 January 2015 and closing on 16 March 2015. The longer consultation period will enable more Aucklanders to become informed and have longer to provide feedback.
• A wider range of feedback channels will be used (written feedback, in person feedback and digital feedback), with feedback across all channels collected (by 16 March) and processed in order to develop theme based briefings for decision-makers.
• Traditional hearings are replaced with 34 public spoken interaction events called Have Your Say (HYS) events across the Auckland region from 14 February through to the 14 March 2015. Aucklanders can provide feedback on regional and local issues at these events which will be attended by a mix of governing body members, local board members, Auckland Transport Board members (or their delegates) and well supported by staff to record all feedback.
• 25 general HYS events that will take place across the Auckland region, along with an additional 9 events for specific key stakeholders and hard to reach communities (e.g. Maori, Ethnic, Pacific and Youth/Seniors).  A specific Transport event will also be held, which will be an invite only event for key transport stakeholders and will be strong supported by the Auckland Transport board.
• Instead of writing back to individual submitters following decisions, an informative report on the final decisions made and how Aucklanders’ views were considered will be developed and made available on ShapeAuckland, as well as libraries, local board offices and service centres.  The availability of the report will be communicated to Aucklanders by emailing people who have participated in the process, social media, advertising (Herald, ethnic media and local papers) and via the Auckland Council website.

6. The Ngā Mana Whenua o Tāmaki Makaurau Collective Redress Act 2014 requires the Maunga Authority and Auckland Council to agree an Annual Operational Plan as part of the LTP process.  The Act requires the Maunga Authority and the Council to jointly consider submissions relating to the draft operational plan summary.  Provision has been made in the LTP process to meet these legislative obligations.  The council will attend a joint deliberations meeting in 2015.

 

Recommendation/sThat the Governing Body: a)      approve the public consultation approach for the Long Term Plan noting that: (i)    The public consultation period will run for seven and a half weeks from 23 January through to 16 March 2015 (ii)   Feedback can be provided through written, in person and digital channels (iii)   Traditional style hearings have been replaced with Have Your Say events across the region. At these events, Aucklanders can provide feedback and have their views heard by decision makers (or their delegates) (iv)  Staff will prepare regional and local briefing reports to provide a full summary of public feedback received across all channels (v)   The council will participate in a joint deliberations meeting with the Maunga Authority on their Annual Operational Plan to be held in 2015 (vi)  A summary of the final decisions made and how Aucklanders views were considered in the decision-making process will be made publicly available in July and widely communicated. b)      delegate to the following elected members and staff the power and responsibility to hear from the public through “spoken interaction/NZ sign language interaction” at the 34 “Have Your Say” events for the LTP: (i)    Councillors; (ii)   Local Board Chairs and Local Board Members for events in their local board area; (iii)   Tier 2 and Tier 3 staff and any additional staff selected by the Chief Executive.   c)      delegate to the Deputy Mayor and the Deputy Chair of the Budget Committee the power to make any required process decisions for the events, including Council representative attendance.

……….

Source: http://infocouncil.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/Open/2014/12/GB_20141218_AGN_4577_AT_WEB.HTM

 

The Methods of Feedback to be made available to us:

Phase Two: Collecting Public Feedback

18. The LTP Summary document will be delivered to Auckland households by 23 January which is when public consultation period begins. Public consultation runs until 16 March 2015.
19. The Summary will include a feedback form and a local insert setting out the priorities for the relevant area. It will also encourage Aucklanders to go online to read the consultation document and other supporting information or to complete an online feedback form.  The Summary will also be available in the following languages online and in hard copy: Maori, Chinese, Samoan, Korean, Hindi and Tongan.
20. The table below summarises the different ways council will collect public feedback.  Written feedback will be collected from 23 January to 16 March 2015, while the feedback events will take place between 14 February and 14 March 2015.
21. Table Two sets out the four broad feedback channels for LTP consultation.  Feedback will be consistently collected and processed across all channels.

 

Table Two: Feedback channels for LTP consultation

Audience	Written feedback	In person		Digital engagement activities	Survey on transport options
		Have Your Say (HYS) events	Other community feedback events
General Public	All Aucklanders	25 events held across the region to capture verbal feedback on regional and local matters. Available to all Aucklanders.	Additional events with local communities on local issues (local board driven)	·  Available to all, but specifically aims to engage youth and online communities·  A weekly blog ·  3 – 4 themed online forums	A survey of 5,000 Aucklanders will be undertaken on transport programme and funding  options
Businesses and key stakeholders		·      1 key stakeholder event·      1 transport-focused event for key transport stakeholders
Maori		·    2 hui (west/central & south)·    Interpreters will be available at any HYS event if required ·    Te Waka Angamua staff will attend all HYS events
Hard to reach audiences e.g. Youth/Seniors, People with disabilities, Ethnic & Pacific		·    4 events for hard to reach audiences	Local boards will target some of these groups through community networks
Co-governance / co-management		·    Event focussed on Maunga Authority operational plan

Written feedback

22. The LTP feedback form is expected to be the primary mechanism Aucklanders use to provide their feedback on the LTP.  Feedback forms will be attached as part of the Summary sent to all households, attached to the consultation document and available online, in libraries, service centres and local board offices.
23. Feedback forms can be submitted via freepost, email or completed online.

 

 

In person feedback

24. Public feedback will also be collected at a variety of LTP events scheduled from February 14^th to March 14^th. The primary purpose of these events is for council staff, elected members, AT board members or their delegates to listen to the views of Aucklanders.  Staff will ensure public feedback is accurately recorded.
25. There are two types of events where Aucklanders can provide feedback in person – Have Your Say events (HYS) and local community feedback events.

 

Have Your Say (HYS) events

26. HYS events will hear public feedback on both local and regional matters. These events replace traditional hearings and will require strong attendance from the governing body, local boards and the Auckland Transport Board (or their delegates) so that the views of the public are heard by decision makers.
27. 34 HYS events are planned across the region, made up of the following events:

• 25 events across the region – at least one event in each local board area with two events scheduled in large geographic areas (Franklin and Rodney) and two in areas with high population (Henderson-Massey and Howick).
• six events will be tailored to meet the needs of specific audiences.  These include:
  • two events for Maori (west/central and south)
  • one event tailored to reach each of the following hard to reach audiences –specifically people with disabilities, ethnic communities, pacific and seniors/youth.

• one event tailored for key stakeholders (including businesses)
• a dedicated Transport event will be held (invite only) to engage specifically with key transport stakeholders.  This event will be strongly supported by the Auckland Transport Board.  Feedback collected will support both the LTP and the RLTP.
• one event focused on Maunga Authority operational plan (attended by Maunga Authority members including Councillors on the Maunga Authority board)

28. The role of elected members (and delegates) at these events is to listen to the views of Aucklanders.
29. Each Have Your Say session will run for approximately two hours, however there could be more than one session held at an event depending on the number of people who register.  Public feedback will be collected across three broad areas:

• The key LTP issues i.e. Balancing affordability with progress; Fixing transport, Your rates; a more active development role for the council..
• Local priorities and proposals
• Other regional matters (if provided)

30. A range of options are available for the structure and format of these events, with the most likely approach being forum-style hearings.  This flexibility will enable events to be tailored to account for logistical variations in the number of Aucklanders who attend, what they would like to talk about, and the number and mix of elected members available.
31. To help manage this, Aucklanders will be asked to register their attendance for these events online through the Shape Auckland website. It would be at this point where they would request a sign interpreter or Māori interpreter if required.
32. To ensure there is fair representation of governing body members at each HYS event, to enable local board members to formally hear and have spoken interaction with the public on general LTP issues at HYS events, and to manage risk by ensuring there is a sufficient number of people able to formally hear from the public where there is large attendance at HYS events, we recommend that delegations are made to all councilors, local board members and staff to hear feedback.
33. Attachment C provides a draft Have Your Say Events Schedule. The events schedule will be confirmed shortly.

 

Additional community feedback events

34. Additional events may be set up by some local boards to support more tailored engagement on local issues in local board agreements.  These will be supported by the Local Board Services department and will tend to focus on continuing ongoing engagement within the local community on local priorities.  For example, these events may focus on engagement with migrant communities, young people, and community or business networks.
35. Public feedback will be recorded at these events.  A feedback session is also planned with mana whenua.

 

Digital engagement activities

36. Shape Auckland will be the digital hub for the Long-term Plan communications and engagement campaign. There are a variety of ways in which digital and social media channels will be used to support the LTP communications campaign. In terms of specific activities to collect feedback, social media (including Twitter, Facebook and ShapeAuckland blogs) and digital initiatives will be delivered, including online forums and blogs:
37. a)      Online forums:   Council will deliver up to four online forums to provide Aucklanders with an opportunity to have their say. These forums will focus on the primary issues for consultation and occur at a pre-scheduled date and time.  People would register to participate and each forum would be supported by a subject matter expert(s) from council.  Feedback received will be recorded and analysed.
38. b)      Blogs – One blog per week will be delivered and managed during the public consultation period. Shape Auckland content will also be shared through third party digital channels to extend the reach of our community engagement.

 

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Source: Auckland Council

 

No doubt you would have seen the transport survey to be done on 5,000 Aucklanders. Again I am leaving that for the next blog post as there is a bit to cover on it.

 

The full Governing Body Agenda:

 

I will (lets hope third time lucky) will be at the Governing Body on Thursday with my live Tweeting service. No doubt however, we should get the usual theatrics and re-litigation debates from the usual quarters…