Willoughby City Council has formed a Citizen’s Panel to assist in the long term planning of asset expenditure.
Willoughby City Council has formed a Citizen’s Panel to assist in the long term planning of asset expenditure.
The Panel is based on the newDemocracy style of community engagement, which promotes the idea that service provision for the people should be determined by the people.
Consisting of 40 members of the Willoughby community, the Citizen’s Panel was recruited via an invitation mailed out to a randomly selected group of more than 1600 residents and businesses.
The Citizen’s Panel then attended a series of workshops, aimed at increasing their knowledge of Willoughby, community needs, and the assets provided across the City. Now an informed group, they have begun reviewing Willoughby’s assets and developing recommendations.
The Citizen’s Panel is now in the process of preparing a report answering the following questions:
What standards and expectations does the community have of Willoughby’s asset base?
Where community expectations exceed Council resources, how can this be addressed so the next generation of Willoughby community continues to enjoy the benefits of community assets?
Over the next few months, representatives from the panel will present their report to Council, along with a detailed analysis of survey results that will be used to create targets for Council’s maintenance and provision of community assets.
Estimated expenditure for asset provision and maintenance will be adjusted according to the Panels’ surveys, feedback and report, and will feed into Council’s long-term financial plan. However, safety concerns, risk management or long-term financial sustainability could override the above feedback in isolated cases.
The Panel’s deliberations were independently facilitated by communications and community engagement specialists KJA.
