by 
Blue Mountains City Council has launched a new community engagement site using EngagementHQ which is getting a fabulous community response.
Their first 4 issues up for discussion are a rates variation forum, a street tree strategy masterplan forum, a forum about community and cultural facilities in Springwood and a forum on integrated planning for services.
The rates variation forums is attracting the most comment, as one might expect, but this is demonstrating the benefit of running parallel forums. People, perhaps motivated to participate by the prospect of a rates rise, are coming to the site and also joining in by giving feedback on the other issues while they are online. This gives Council more feedback and also allows them to see that while members of the community may be angry about one issue they will engage very constructively on others.
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