Public Participation and Engagement Report

We believe the best decisions happen when we listen. Every time someone fills out a survey, calls us, attends a drop-in, joins an event, or chats with us online, it helps shape the direction of our city.

We have always shared the results of feedback from individual consultations, but this is the first time we have pulled everything together into one complete picture.

Our Public Participation and Engagement Report shows how people across Palmerston North are involved in Council’s work — from major plans and projects to everyday opportunities to learn, share and connect.

This city-wide report gives a full-year snapshot of how your voice is helping shape Palmy. It captures the conversations, feedback and community relationships that guide our decisions. As far as we know, this is the first time any council in New Zealand has brought all of its engagement activity together in one place.

Why we’ve created this report

We wanted to make it easier for our community to see how engagement really happens — not just through formal consultations, but through the hundreds of touchpoints that help us stay connected all year round.

The report reflects our commitment to transparency and accountability. It shows the work our staff, elected members and partners do every day to listen to the community, provide clear information and involve people in decisions that affect them. It also helps us see where we can improve and how we can make it even easier for people to have their say.

By sharing this information publicly, we hope to build trust and confidence in local decision-making, and show how your ideas, questions and feedback genuinely make a difference.

Read the reports

We’ve published the full Public Participation and Engagement Report and the accompanying Council memo on proposed indicators so you can see exactly what we’re reporting on and how.

Public Participation and Engagement Report 2024–2025(PDF, 9MB)

A first-of-its-kind summary of how people across Palmerston North are involved in shaping Council decisions.

Council Memo: Public Participation and Engagement Indicators

Explains how we’ll measure and report on community participation each year.

How we involve you

Community involvement happens in many different ways. Every year, we:

Run public consultations and feedback processes on key plans and policies, like the Long-Term Plan and the Annual Budget
Hold drop-in and pop-up sessions across the city so you can chat with staff and elected members face-to-face
Partner with community groups, schools and local organisations to share information and hear different perspectives
Work closely with Rangitāne o Manawatū, our Youth Council, and our Pasifika, Disability and Seniors’ Reference Groups to ensure a range of voices are represented
Join community events like Esplanade Day, Festival of Cultures and Rural Games to meet people where they are
Host tours of facilities like the Resource Recovery Park and the wastewater treatment plant so people can see what goes on behind the scenes
Use our website, newsletters and social media to keep people informed, answer questions and provide quick ways to give feedback.

Whether it’s in person, online or through local groups, every one of these interactions helps make Council more accessible, responsive and connected.

How we’ll measure and report on engagement

To help track how we are doing and where we can do better, we have developed a set of new indicators for public participation and engagement. These indicators will guide future reporting and help us understand trends over time.

From now on, we will report on these indicators annually so you can see how our work to involve the community is progressing. They look at things like:

The number and variety of opportunities people have to take part in decision-making
How many people feel informed about what Council is doing and how to get involved
How easy residents find it to have their say
Levels of trust in Council decision-making
Participation through online channels, events, and libraries
Overall voter turnout in local and general elections.

These indicators bring together data from our residents survey, website analytics, social media engagement, events and participation records. They are designed to show patterns and changes over time rather than one-off performance scores.

We know that numbers never tell the whole story, so each year’s report will also include real examples of how community input has influenced decisions and what we have learned from the process.

Building transparency and trust

Reporting on this work is about more than data. It’s about showing that your voice matters and that Council is genuinely listening. We want our community to see the full picture — where engagement is strong, where it can grow, and how it all connects to the decisions that shape Palmerston North.

Each year, we will continue to update this information and share the results so you can see the progress we are making and how we are responding to what we hear.

Stay connected and have your say

If you care about what’s happening in Palmerston North, we want to hear from you.

Visit the Have Your Say page to explore current consultations and feedback opportunities.

Have Your Say

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