Kingston District Council made a huge impact with its first community forum.
A crowd of 130 community members packed into the Kingston Town Hall to meet with councillors and help inform council’s future planning.
Over 130 people attended the forum, which represents more than five percent of the district.
Mayor Reg Lyon said the forum was a success and councillors had received ‘fantastic’ feedback.
Council engaged consultant Derek Stamoulis from Leadership Learning Dynamics to prepare councilors for the event
Mr Stamoulis met with councillors and staff a few days prior to the forum, where he briefed them on what they may expect and the best way to help community members get the most out of the experience.
The forum was set into three key phases, the first of which saw councillors and senior staff responsible for keeping conversation flowing with participants in small groups.
CEO Andrew MacDonald said splitting up into working groups allowed each community member to have their voices heard.
“Derek was fantastic in facilitating the forum and assisting councillors and staff to generate quality conversation,”
In the first phase council asked community members what council was doing well and what council needed to do better.
In groups, ideas were generated and discussed with agreed thoughts captured on butchers paper.
At the end of the session each tabled shared ideas with the rest of the room and the butchers paper ideas were then placed around the Town Hall.
The forum then moved into the second phase where they workshopped what they would like to see council focus on over the next four years and beyond.
Some of the biggest priorities from community members included beach erosion, town heritage, tourism, improvements to Kingston’s foreshore and its main streets, supporting traders and giving the town’s youth more facilities.
Once again all ideas were then placed around the Town Hall.
In the final phase each member of the community was given five stickers and asked to choose their top five priorities, guided by what they thought were the most important topics for council to focus on going forward.
This exercise allowed council to see what is most important to the community and to assist in identifying which issues are priorities in the strategic plan and in the next budget.
Mayor Lyon said tourism was a high priority on the list, and something most tables at the forum wanted to concentrate on going forward.
“A lot of community wanted to see township entrance signage updated.
“With high quality photographs encouraging those passing through to stay.”
There was also a lot of discussion on preserving Kingston’s heritage properties and features like the Cape Jaffa Lighthouse and the Big Lobster.
“The community wants their icons protected and they want council to take a more active role in the maintenance of these icons,”
Mr MacDonald said council was keen to follow up with the community in May, after it had the chance to workshop what came out of the forum and to consider. “It was a great experience, which I believe the councillors and the community enjoyed.
“There was a buzz and energy with the community because they were able to be involved with this sort of planning for Kingston.”
