A record number of residents have provided their thoughts and feedback on projects being conducted by the City of Canterbury Bankstown, New South Wales, or impacting it, over the past 12 months.
Mayor Khal Asfour said involving the community in the decision-making process was key to designing an even better City.
“Reaching and engaging with close to 8,000 people reaffirms Council’s commitment to the community and shows an extraordinary amount of teamwork and collaboration.”
The most recent opportunity involved Council’s proposed budget to deliver hundreds of projects in 2018-19.
“We hosted 26 engagement activities across Canterbury-Bankstown. These sessions proved very helpful in gauging what residents wanted.
“At one stage, our staff had more than 1,000 face-to-face conversations with individual residents, which led to in excess of 310 submissions sent through our Have Your Say online portal.”
The introduction of Council’s Community Voice Panel has also been a success.
“Interested members of the community were selected to be a part of a panel to provide their opinions on the Sydenham to Bankstown Urban Renewal Corridor, at four workshops,” Mayor Asfour said.
“They assisted us in understanding what the community knew about the Corridor project. It was clear, they felt and continue to feel, left in the dark.”
Mayor Asfour emphasised that with Canterbury-Bankstown facing unprecedented levels of change, it was important members of the community got involved and had their say.
“The community wants and has every right to be consulted and involved in shaping our City, which is why we continue to carry out these engagement activities.”
