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Simon Adcock is the project manager for Lismore City Council. Since taking up the position, he’s been keen to get the community engagement ball rolling using an online system. He’s taken the opportunity of a proposed rate rise to do just that.
And in terms of community usage, the consultation has been wildly successful – with the site attracting over 700 unique visitors in the first two weeks.
“Using Engagement HQ has meant that we are engaging the community more effectively than ever before,”explains Simon. “Of course we’d tried traditional community engagement methods in the past. We’ve held public meetings, and engaged face to face – but we’d never gotten the numbers that the online forum is pulling in for us. It’s the first time we’ve used online and it’s been great.”
But while user uptake of the technology has been very successful, feedback on the rate rise has been overwhelmingly negative and the response has been a slap in the face to a council that hadn’t expected the level of criticism it received. While they had expected some negativity they hadn’t been prepared for the volume of it.
“The response has, to be honest, been a little hard to take for our Council,” he says. “It’s very different from the “faint praise” response that we normally get when we send out our mail-out surveys. But to us it’s useful information. If people aren’t happy with what you’re doing, it’s better to know it and then look at ways to improve it.”
However, the Council, much to their credit are taking the criticism on the chin. Not only are they actively engaging with their community online by fielding questions and commenting on community opinion, but on the whole they’ve taken to viewing the situation as a “short term pain, long term gain scenario”.
“Our General Manager is right on board,” notes Simon. “He’s very keen to have more online engagement using the Bang the Table’s forums. Our Councillors have driven hard to have community engagement and now they’ve got it.”
Visit haveyoursaylismore.com.au to see the site in action.
This work by Bang the Table Pty Ltd is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia License.
