Community Voice - Shaping Our Future Project

On 11 November 2019, the City launched its biggest community engagement campaign in over five years, the Community Voice - Shaping our Future Project. The Project, which gave residents the chance to have their say on the services the City provides and future capital works projects, was delivered in a series of stages over a 12 month period.  More here

Project Stages

Stage 1: Community Voice Survey

• Youth Engagement

Stage 2: Range and Level of Services Review

• Citizens Jury Recommendations to the City and Council
• Suggested Service Improvements and Efficiencies
• Priority List of Potential New Services
• What services does the City provide?
• What is a Citizens Jury?

Stage 3: New Capital Works Prioritisation

• Citizens Jury Prioritised List of Capital Works
• Citizens Jury Recommendations to the City and Council

Stage 1: Community Voice Survey

Members of the community who have an opinion about what the City does, or doesn't do well, were given the opportunity to tell us what they think by taking the Community Voice Survey.

Survey respondents had the opportunity to tell us how important city assets and services are to them and whether they are happy or unhappy with the maintenance of assets or the delivery of services.

There was also an opportunity to tell the City what you think Council should be focusing on over the next three years. The following table lists the top services or facilities and the top future priorities listed by the community in the survey.  Read the Community Voice Project Community and Youth Surveys Report here

Youth Engagement

Specific engagement with Geraldton’s young people regarding the future of the City region began in December 2019 with a series of World Cafés held with 70 students from Geraldton Senior College. Youth engagement continued in December 2020 with a second set of world cafés held with 216 students from Geraldton Grammar School.

The objectives of the World Cafés were to gain a better understanding of what youth value about living in the City region and what they think would make it an even better place to live.

To complete the youth engagement, a visioning workshop was held in December 2020. Four former Citizen Jurors in the Community Voice – Deliberative Democracy Project took part in the workshop. Ages of the workshop participants ranged from 15-27 years. The objective of the workshop was to draft a potential vision statement for consideration for the Strategic Community Plan 2021-2022.

Read the Youth Engagement Strategic Community Plan Review Report here

Stage 2: Range and Level of Services Review

In February and March 2020, a Citizens Jury of 30 randomly selected members of the community reviewed and deliberated the range and level of services the City provides and made recommendations on the levels of future service provision. Before the Jury began their deliberations, they reviewed the Range and Level of Services Assessment Criteria developed by the 2014-Range and Level of Services Community Panel and revised it to ensure it reflected current community values.  The Jury then utilised the criteria to assess and rank City services. The Jury made the following recommendations and suggestions regarding City services.

Read the full Community Voice Project Range and Level of Services Review Report and Recommendations here

Citizens Jury Recommendations to City and Council

Increase Level of Service

Rubbish Collection and Sanitation

Recommendations:

• Two yearly verge side collection to replace skip bin system.
• City wide roll out of FOGO (subject to successful trial).

Youth Development

Recommendation:

• Do more for the target group of at risk young people, having regard to knowledge of what is most effective and where increased resources would make the most difference.

Decrease Level of Service

Geraldton Visitor Centre

Recommendations:

• Reduce hours overall, taking into consideration visitor data and a balance of online, in-person and kiosk services, including kiosk service in one or more other locations with longer hours.
• Cease gift shop (use space for more effective display/promotion of attractions).
• Cease memberships.

Services to Remain the Same

Recommendation:

• The level of service for the other 32 services to remain unchanged.

Suggested Service Improvements and Efficiencies

• Fewer, bigger events (with some existing events combined).
• Increase fees for commercial waste and regulated waste (to increase revenue and incentivise recycling).
• Investigate more user-pays/financial input from sports clubs.
• Grow commercial prospects of the community nursery, including more public sales and possible tourism opportunities.
• Annual Arts Market Day for local artists.
• Co-location/combining services within other venues/facilities.
• ‘Pride In Our City’ gardening competition.
• Better promotion of free parking options (especially for visitors).
• Improved signage and promotion of visitor services and attractions.
• Better retrieval of items out of waste stream for tip shop.
• Review zoning of coastal areas (to prevent unsustainable residential development which becomes a future liability for the City).
• Computer literacy for seniors – ensure effective promotion.

Priority List of Potential New Services 

• Recycling processing plant.
• Homelessness plan and implementation.
• Recycling education.
• Snake/reptile removal service.

Read the full Community Voice Project Range and Level of Services Review Report and Recommendations here

What Services does the City provide?

Want to know more about the services the City provides the community? Watch a series of short videos about our services below.

What is a Citizens Jury?

A Citizens jury involves the wider community in the decision-making process. Citizen juries use a representative sample of community members without formal alignments or allegiances (usually selected in a random or stratified manner) who are briefed in detail on the background and current thinking relating to a particular issue, and asked to discuss possible approaches.. Community members are asked to become members of the jury and make a judgement in the form of a report. The issues they are asked to consider will be those that have an effect across the broad community and where a representative and democratic decision-making process is required.

Citizen juries can be used to provide a transparent and non-aligned viewpoint.

Citizen juries bring with them an intrinsic worth in the good sense and wisdom borne of their own knowledge and personal experience. Citizen juries provide the opportunity to add to that knowledge and to exchange ideas with their fellow community members. The result is a collective one, in which each jury member has a valuable contribution to make.

The Citizen Jury reviewed City services and deliberated their future delivery.

Stage Three: New Capital Works Prioritisation

In November 2020, a Citizens Jury of 22 randomly selected members of the community reviewed, deliberated and prioritised 18 new capital works projects for inclusion in the 10 Year Capital Works Plan. These projects are ‘nice to have projects’, are not part of the core services the City provides and their implementation would be subject to the availability of both internal and external funding.  Before the Jury began their deliberations, they reviewed the Capital Works Assessment Criteria developed by the 2013-10 Year Capital Works Plan Community Panel and revised it to ensure it reflected current community values.  The Jury then utilised the criteria to assess and rank the 18 projects into a priority list.

Read the Community Voice Project 10 Year Capital Works Plan Project Prioritisation Report here

Citizen Jury Prioritised List of Capital Works

Citizens Jury Recommendations to the City and Council

In relation to the workshop objectives and engagement process:

1. Council adopt the Citizens Jury Assessment Criteria and Framework
   
2. The Assessment Criteria and Framework continue to be used to assess new Capital Works projects as they arise;
3. When assessing new Capital Works projects, that both the City and Citizens Jury criteria be applied separately to each project, that these rankings are presented in separate columns and that a new set of ranks are created by equally combining Jury and City scores to calculate a final score. All three scores are to be displayed side by side to inform decision making;
4. Council adopt the combined scored prioritised list of Capital Works into the 10 Year Capital Works Plan; and
5. The City and Council implement a Citizens Jury on a regular basis to revisit the community values based Assessment Criteria and Framework and rank new Capital Works Projects for inclusion in the 10 Year Capital Works Plan.

In relation to future Capital Works projects:

1. A targeted reduction in the City’s carbon footprint;
2. Increasing sustainability;
3. Reducing waste;
4. Reducing negative impacts on the environment;
5. Supporting the Million Trees project;
6. Balancing heritage and the environment with development; and
7. Including heritage and culture elements in Capital Works projects.

Read the Community Voice Project 10 Year Capital Works Plan Project Prioritisation Report here