Tomorrow night will be the first ‘community forum’, ostensibly to seek residents’ input into the so called ‘Community Plan’. Problem is, that Glen Eira does not have a Community Plan. There are no two separate documents! What Glen Eira has is the Council Plan – although it is often conveniently labelled as a Community Plan. “Community” after all, is such a wonderful, heart warming word!
This isn’t a matter of neat semantics, or hair splitting over jargon. It goes to the very heart of what should distinguish a Community Plan from a Council Plan. Here are some definitions –
Banyule – “A Community Plan captures the community’s view of a vision, priorities and actions to enhance the physical, social and economic wellbeing of the local area. A key aspect of community planning is that the process and output is owned by the community”.
BAYSIDE – “The Bayside 2020 Community Plan expresses a vision for Bayside for the next ten years. Based on an extensive and ongoing community engagement process, it sits at the heart of Bayside’s planning framework, providing an essential reference for all of Council’s plans, policies and strategies and an orientation to community engagement, now and into the future”.
There are plenty more definitions but the following diagram from Bayside’s plan illustrates the relationship between the Community and Council Plan. Please note that the former feeds into the Council Plan which then leads on to the Action Plan.
So how does Glen Eira fit into this scenario? Do residents’ vision(s) ever sit at the heart of any policy, framework, or scheme devised and implemented by this council?
In both NSW and Queensland, a Community Plan is mandated by the respective Local Government Acts. In fact the Queensland guidelines state: “The corporate plan is drawn from the community plan…..the objectives, strategies and actions outlined in the corporate plan must be consistent with the vision of the community plan” (p.5) In Victoria, the legislation does not mention Community Plan. Section 125 simply talks about a Council Plan –“ A Council must prepare and approve a Council Plan within the period of 6 months after each general election or by the next 30 June, whichever is later”. This ‘plan’ must include ‘objectives’ and strategies for achieving the objectives as well as a means of monitoring and assessing the overall success of the implementation.
We bring all this to the attention of readers because it is vital that residents understand how Glen Eira is the odd man out when compared with some of our neighbouring councils. If this is really a genuine attempt to pinpoint what the community demands and expects, as well as to gauge their values, which subsequently inform the Council Plan, then many questions require answering:
- Why was the Steering Committee not in force and operational PRIOR to the consultant’s report which has in the past formed the basis of the Council Plan? A report on setting up the Steering Group had been requested in March 2011 – nearly a year ago.
- Why is there the need for another Council Plan review at this point in time rather than following the next election as required by the legislation and as Cr. Pilling has questioned on his blog? Why this ‘indecent haste’, especially since there has already been ‘consultation’ back in April, 2011?
- Is this just more ‘smoke and mirrors’, designed to create the illusion of real consultation and the existence of a real ‘Community Plan’ when in fact the agendas have already been set via the inviolable Council Plan and its associated Strategic Resource Plan. A remarkable sentence appears in the minutes of the April 2011 item on the ‘consultation’ for the Council Plan: “Council proposes to retain the existing Council Plan”. More smoke and mirrors then, and perhaps now? Yes, let’s ‘consult’ but we won’t change a damn thing!
Obviously, this time around the proof will be in the eating. We sincerely hope that this is not just another expensive and orchestrated charade of ‘consultation’ – that the vision of the community will in the end become the foundation of the Council Plan.
Glen Eira Debates 
February 13, 2012 at 12:56 PM
Comments that are up on council’s have your say are pretty predictable. Most people are unhappy about planning and traffic. That’s the message coming through loud and clear. If the result of this consultation is no action on these issues then councillors will pay the price for sure.
February 13, 2012 at 1:08 PM
Why is Glen Eira different? essentially anti-community in most of its activities.
I would put the blame at the feet of the majority of its anti-community councillors. None of this on the surface makes any sense, why the people that should be fostering good community relations, are in fact bent on undermining this resource. If you look at the serial power abuser on the council. The same old names appear time and time again. This blog singles them out time and time again. We can all fantasise that we are all working together to achieve community harmony and shared outcomes that benefit everyone. But it looks like this is not the case. This blog should bit the bullet and explore the failings of the present council. This blog continually ignores the elephant in the room. So it goes around and around and never goes to heart of the dysfunction that kills any progress in Glen Eira. Who benefit from this engineered dysfunction and what are their motive and goals. My personal feeling is that to engineer dysfunction in a community to benefit some and disfranchise others is a dangerous and stupid thing to foster. Any gains made by some at the expense of others through this crude political method, are not gains at all, they are losses. Until the divisive power abusing councillors are replaced by other councillors that will work together to achieve meaningful community relations across all Glen Eira nothing will change. If we continue along the same modus operandi, with the majority of councillors seeking to entrench there personal ugly politics into our local government, community relations will only get worse.
February 13, 2012 at 9:16 PM
Problems with this proposed ‘community plan’ extend beyond the sham consultation to the demographic data to be used. Only two weeks ago the ABS announced the release dates for the 2011 census data. The proposed ‘Community Plan’ will be signed off by Councillors BEFORE this data is released. The plan will be based on old, six year out of date data collected in 2006. Demographically, the population has changed significantly in this time. This adds greater merit to the cited quote above “Council proposes to retain the existing Council Plan”.
Why is this strategic document being developed 12 months before it is legislated for?
Why is it being developed in advance of such critical demographic data being released by the ABS? Most local governments and state government department are holding off on developing strategic plans until the 2011 census data is released.
Why are Glen Eira preparing a plan with such OLD and irrelevant data?
Do the current bunch of Councillors want to make a longer term mark on our community than necessary or fair?