Header image alt text

Cllr Francis Timmons – Independent Voice

public consultation

MEETING OF ORGANISATION PROCEDURE AND FINANCE COMMITTEE

Thursday, January 22, 2015

MOTION NO. 1

MOTION: Councillor F. Timmons

Following the extremely low submissions on the recent public consultation on the Local property, that the Chief Executive draw up a detailed set of policy and guidelines on public consultations and a plan has to how SDCC intends to deal with this issue.

REPORT:

The Council recognises that good communication between the local authority and the local community contributes greatly to the development of a vibrant local government system. In promoting good communication, the Council uses a variety of mechanisms including:

  • Elected Members, as the individuals who are democratically elected by the local community, they play an essential role in providing feedback on council initiatives, polices and plans directly from the local community
  • Strategic Policy Committees (SPCs) facilitate the participation of various interest groups in the local government policy making process
  • Local Community Development Committee ( LCDC )
  • Public Participation Network ( PPN)
  • Comhaire Na nOg ( Youth Council)
  • Public Advertisements in Local and National press
  • Advertising Campaigns
  • Council website www.sdcc.ie
  • E-consultation
  • E-surveys
  • Social Media- Facebook, Twitter and Youtube
  • Exhibitions and displays in Civic Buildings, Library and Community Centre Networks
  • Public Meetings
  • Press Releases

Statutory/Non statutory consultation procedures exist for many types of projects i.e. capital schemes, new plans, polices and byelaws. The Council frequently goes beyond the minimum levels of consultation required and actively promotes any processes that are underway through traditional and non traditional means.

The Council actively seeks to encourage greater engagement and increase the numbers of citizens who participate in both statutory/non statutory consultation processes and avails of opportunities to modernise and innovate in our communications methods where possible. The recently initiated process for Review of the County Development plan is an example of the variety of methods and innovations that can be applied to a major consultation process.

South Dublin County Council will shortly provide the elected members with a draft External Communications and Marketing Strategy, this document will include a review of engagement and consultation processes across the organisation to ensure that information is relevant, jargon free and accessible, improve mechanisms for communicating with the public and feedback to participants on how their contributions fed into decisions taken by the council.

Public consultation and engagement play an important role in promoting the ownership of public services and the modernisation and exploration of innovative new ways of engaging with the community to keep in touch with the needs of citizens will be key our approach to communications.

 

Loading