Significance and Engagement Policy

The Council is committed to making informed and sustainable decisions in the best interests of communities across our District. We want to ensure the decisions made reflect the aspirations of tangata whenua, residents, ratepayers, community groups and business.

To help us to make the best decisions, Council engages with our communities every day in a number of different ways. Sometimes, this is us providing information, and other times we directly seek input into our decision-making processes.

Our Significance and Engagement Policy helps us by doing two main things:

1. It outlines for the Council and the community how we decide what issues, proposals, decisions, assets and activities are significant
2. Sets out how and when communities can expect to input into council decision-making processes

Generally speaking, the more significant the issue, the greater deal of consultation or engagement will take place.

This policy seeks to provide clarity as to when the Council will, and will not seek public participation.

What changes are we proposing?

We are proposing to amend Section 7 to properly reflect the extent of the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) spectrum.

IAP2's Spectrum of Public Participation was designed to assist with the selection of the level of participation that defines the public's role in any public participation process. The Spectrum is used internationally, and it is found in many public participation plans.

Previously the policy acknowledged the Inform, Consult and Collaborate metrics. We have changed our policy to include the role of Involve and Empower metrics in our engagement plans.

The Significance and Engagement Policy was last updated in 2017 at which time the policy noted a requirement for further update prior to the 2021 LTP - which is taking place in early 2021.