Is it really worth talking to the Council? - June 26 2009

People often ask me if it is really worth talking to the Council and will the Council listen. My answer is most certainly yes, and the recent 10 Year Plan process only proves my point.

Putting the plan together has created some interesting statistics that show how interested the public were in what we had planned, how interested the Council was to hear from them, and how seriously the Council took the thoughtful contributions the public made to the process.  So here are some numbers for you.

544- the number of submissions received from the public addressing issues from road safety to recycling, bridges to bus stations, conservatories to canaries and everything in between. This included a petition signed by 1670 people.

110- the number of people who took extra time to come and present their submissions to the Council face to face.

28- the number of hours that Councilors spent listening to those people who had taken the time to come and present face to face.

25- the number of hours Council spent in further meetings discussing the submissions the public had made and making changes to the plan to reflect those thoughts.

48- the number of amendments made to the plan as a result of those 544 written submissions, 107 oral submissions, 28 hours of listening and 25 hours of debate.

While I can’t say that everyone who made a submission got what they were looking for (that would after all be impossible as many submissions were in complete conflict with each other), I can say that they were all read, listened to and given full consideration by Council.

The task now before the Council is to start implementing the decisions we made and to keep communicating with you about how we are doing. 

The chance for your input does not end here as we will need to know what you think on a number of issues from time to time and I encourage you to get involved. 

You don’t have to wait till we ask either, as anyone can call the Customer Service Centre 24 hours a day 7 days a week, or ring and make an appointment to see me in one of my regular “Meet the Mayor” sessions.