By Cameron Weston
HOBSONS Bay City Council has joined a new program aimed at giving the community a greater say in decision-making processes.
The council responded to a Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) invitation, sent out to councils across the state, to join the Lighthouse Program, a community planning initiative.
The first statewide meeting was held on 23 March.
Hobsons Bay director of planning and environment Eric Braslis said the program is designed to help councils “share knowledge about what works and what does not work” in community planning.
Mr Braslis said true bottom-up planning, where members of the community played an integral part of the decision-making process proved a challenging task for many of the local councils.
Community planning was often called real democracy as it allowed people to influence decision making in matters that are important to them.
Community plans are created independently by members of the community and are designed to be key documents in the council decision-making process.
They are designed to address issues like the social, economic and physical requirements of the community and should have wide community support.
Mr Braslis said the Laverton Together model was a good example of community planning that was already achieving positive results in Hobsons Bay.
Geoff Lake, president of the Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV), said while councils were the closest level of government to the community, they needed to be more responsive to community needs.
He said the program would work by changing the relationship between councils and the community.
“Civic engagement has traditionally involved councils providing opportunities to contribute feedback and input into council proposals.”
Mr Lake said community plans were a good way to achieve this as they are produced and owned by the community.
“The community becomes the driver of change, while the local government acts as the promoter,” he said.
The program had already been successfully tried in the UK and New Zealand, where it “led to stronger, happier, more confident and resilient communities”, Mr Lake said.
