Draft Community Engagement Strategy

Next Steps

Following the feedback received during public exhibition, we reviewed all submissions and prepared a report on the outcome of the public exhibition process for the Council Meeting on 10 December 2024. You can read more about the consultation results in our Engagement Summary.

The Councillors deferred the strategy and is now being present at the Council Meeting on 25 March 2025.

All participants will be let known of the outcome.

Background

We are committed to proactively engaging with the community on major issues and plans affecting the future of the region, and activities that have significant impact on the community.

Our draft Community Engagement Strategy, including the Community Participation Plan, has been developed from your feedback on how you want to be engaged with. Each year, staff conduct a number of engagement activities to better inform Council’s decision-making process, and this document guides us in best practice.

It ensures that Council receives continuous community input and promotes awareness of opportunities for residents to actively participate in shaping how services are delivered. Additionally, it underscores our commitment to ensuring those affected by decisions have the right to participate in decision-making.

The Strategy includes:

Our approach to engagement
The specific methods we use to engage
Community engagement risks and opportunities
Our focus areas
How we measure the success of engagement
How we close the loop on engagement activities.

Why does the draft Strategy also include our Community Participation Plan?

A revised draft Community Participation Plan (CPP), once a separate document, has been incorporated in the draft Community Engagement Strategy. A CPP is a mandatory requirement for all planning authorities as per the Environmental Planning & Assessment Act 1979.

The CPP is designed to make community participation in local and regional land use planning matters easier and clearer for the community. Effective planning shapes the future of the region while ensuring we protect the things that are most valued by our community.

The CPP includes details on:

How the community can participate in planning matters
How we will notify the community
Submission process for development applications
Minimum exhibition timeframes.

This document has been included in the draft Community Engagement Strategy to provide the community with greater clarity about how and when they will have a say in a single, cohesive document.

Your attention is drawn to the provisions of the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 which allows for possible access to certain public and personal documentation. View our privacy statement.

Have your say

We invited interested parties to review the proposed draft Community Engagement Strategy, including Community Participation Plan, and provide feedback.

Submissions were open between 2 August and 30 September 2024 via

Online survey: Submissions are now closed
Email: engageme@centralcoast.nsw.gov.au
Mail: PO Box 20, Wyong, NSW 2259

The community also had the opportunity to interact with Council staff in person during the public exhibition to discuss engagement or to provide feedback on the draft Community Engagement Strategy, including at:

Outdoor Movie Nights - The Entrance, Toukley, Gosford and Wyong
Sustainable Futures Festival - Visitor Information Centre, The Entrance

And a phone survey of our community was also undertaken.

Council onsite at a popup event to get feedback from the community

Document Library

Timeline

Timeline item 1 - complete

Stage 1

Stakeholder consultation
Timeline item 2 - complete

Stage 2

Develop draft Community Engagement Strategy including Public Participaton Plan
Timeline item 3 - complete

Stage 3

draft Strategy to Council for endorsement of public exhibition
Timeline item 4 - complete

Stage 4

Public exhibition and market research process
Timeline item 5 - complete

Stage 5

Community feedback reviewed
Timeline item 6 - active

Stage 6

Deferred to 25 March 2025 Council Meeting

FAQs

Council’s Engagement Framework, initially adopted in 2017, built staff engagement skills and fostered a culture or engagement throughout our organisation. We have now integrated the principles of this framework into a unified strategy, creating a single, cohesive document and point of reference for our staff and community.

The purpose of the Strategy is to establish principles and guidelines for how Council engages with the community and to also inform the community about their opportunities and rights to be involved in Council’s decision-making process.

Having an engagement strategy is legislatively required for councils in NSW. The draft Strategy is guided by NSW Government legislation which requires each NSW council to develop and implement a four-year engagement strategy under the Local Government Act 1993.

Now more than ever, our community is seeking better access to information and greater transparency in decision-making. To meet these needs, we are updating our understanding of how various groups across our diverse population prefer to engage with Council matters.

We aim to continue running activities that effectively reach all individuals impacted by our projects and plans. This involves offering accessible opportunities for everyone, particularly those who are hard-to-reach, such as busy families, youth, disadvantaged groups, and those with limited access to technology. The Strategy includes methods for achieving this, along with Council’s guiding principles for engagement.

Community engagement refers to how we engage with our community. The process commences with providing information to our customers and community, with the aim to seek and incorporate informed feedback to ensure we reach the best possible outcomes that benefit all stakeholders.

Education is key to effective community engagement and decision-making. It also allows our community to make informed choices that maximise the services we deliver.

Council’s previous Engagement Framework was developed using community feedback, best practices from other councils and levels of government and insights from the International Association of Public Participation (IAP2).

In 2017 and 2018, we held five ward-based community workshops, conducted surveys and gathered input from the Community Strategic Plan engagement. This extensive feedback provided a clear understanding of community preferences for engagement and consultation. After reviewing the feedback from the public exhibition, we finalised the strategy and presented a report for Council's consideration at the 26 March 2018 Council Meeting. Council received the report and implemented improvements to the Engagement Framework.

The Framework defines Council’s approach to engagement with the aim to ensure that we do what we say we will do and that we apply engagement in a consistent way. The Framework provides direction to effectively engage and communicate with our community and customers and provides guidance on when and how to undertake engagement activities and what steps and processes should be considered.

Since its adoption, the Framework has been supported by an Internal Engagement Improvement Plan to drive improvement and capability. The Improvement Plan has been continuously reviewed in 2019, 2021 and 2022 to adjust to changing community and organisational needs. The Improvement Plan and our community’s ongoing feedback have driven improvements to the Framework, resulting in the development of the draft Community Engagement Strategy.

The methods used for external consultation and feedback have included:
• 2018: Five workshops and an online survey; results reported to Council in March 2018
• 2020: Customer satisfaction survey
• Ongoing: Evaluations from the “Let’s Talk” initiative
• 2024: Community wellbeing survey, including questions on engagement
• July/August 2024: Public exhibition, market research, and targeted stakeholder
engagement.

Council follows engagement principles as outlined in the Strategy through the activities presented in the table below:

Engagement Activity	Comments
Your Voice - Our Coast (online)	This online platform represents best practice community engagement. The platform is used for complex consultation projects, surveys, polls, discussions, including a planned engagement calendar and exhibition items and acts as a one-stop shop for engagement in the online environment. This platform also provides the results of engagement activities and information back to the community on decisions made. This site also has links to Council’s social media platforms.
Social Pinpoint	Interactive map that allows comments and issues. We use social pinpoint so that participants online can identify the location of either the issue or where they live (or both) and leave a comment. This is particularly affective for masterplan engagement or complex planning or infrastructure projects. Analysis of this feedback is cross referenced with the face-to-face feedback and other activities for a rigorous consideration of trends, challenges and ideas.
Community pop-ups, drop-ins and workshops	This is one of the most popular community engagement initiatives with communities with the aim of having informal conversations with Council staff in local areas. The purpose of these activities is to understand what is important for ratepayers, residents, businesses, visitors and stakeholders.
Place-based Engagement	By understanding what residents need at a neighbourhood level, Council can collectively facilitate effective and robust community engagement across the entire Local Government Area (LGA). This program is building up capacity within Council to understand the issues, identity and character of an area as well as better coordinate service delivery and planning. In future the focus it is intended that comments from each local place should be analysed and themed so that trends and issues across the wider LGA can also be identified.
Projects, Partnerships and Program	Our tailored community engagement activities are developed and implemented to engage with external and internal stakeholders across a range of Council plans, projects and programs, to discuss changes to their local area, to foster long term relationships and community partnerships. Engagement methods are chosen from the spectrum and range from online and face to face conversations, surveys, focus groups, workshops, world cafes and activity planning. Where possible we continue to make it more convenient for people to attend and/or provide feedback.
Community Education	Community education activities such as workshops, tours and information sessions are developed and implemented to provide people with the opportunity to learn and embrace attitudinal/behavioural change, to achieve shared understanding between Council and the community and to implement awareness campaigns. Examples include estuary education, waste education, library programs, road safety and environmental education.
Contacting Council	Council's Customer Experience program improves contact with Council and provides regular updates and feedback to customers. Customers can currently use the following channels: • In person at service centres and libraries • Online Customer Service Centre • Telephone • Email • Web feedback • Social Media • By post • Submissions for items on public exhibition • View livestream Council meetings • Speaking at a Council meeting • Other online and mobile-enabled self-service portals

All relevant feedback on the document will be considered by the project team before the final document is developed. Council staff will then prepare a report on the outcome of the public exhibition process for Council's consideration.

Contact Information
Website	www.centralcoast.nsw.gov.au/
In writing	Gosford 91-99 Mann Street Gosford NSW 2250, Australia P. 02 4306 7900 Wyong 2 Hely StreetWyong NSW 2259, Australia P. 02 4306 7900

www.centralcoast.nsw.gov.au/

Gosford

91-99 Mann Street Gosford NSW 2250, Australia P. 02 4306 7900

Wyong

2 Hely StreetWyong NSW 2259, Australia P. 02 4306 7900