Community Engagement

Gladstone Social Infrastructure Strategic Plan Consultation Programme

A Community Engagement Plan was prepared as part of the project methodology, which included the following key consultation tasks:

• Formation of the ‘Social Infrastructure Strategic Plan Working Group’
• Consultation with the existing Gladstone Infrastructure Working Group (GIWG)
• Interviews with key stakeholders including major industrial development proponents, the Council, Gladstone Ports Corporation and others
• Small group focus meetings with SIS Plan Working Group members and local facility and service providers
• A series of workshops with the wider community throughout the region
• A joint workshop with key community representatives, facility and service providers and Government agencies
• Distribution of a pro forma questionnaire to facility and service providers
• Web and fact sheets updates, feedback forms and media releases, and
• Call for comments on the Draft Action Plan.

Sharyn Briggs was integral to the process, facilitating Working Group meetings, conducting intergovernmental interviews, conducting focus groups, designing the pro forma questionnaire and overseeing the preparation of fact sheets and web updates.

Fraser Coast Social Infrastructure Needs Assessment Study Consultation

This included presentation and discussion with local interagency groups across the region, and meetings with community representatives and a range of government agencies and key stakeholders.

This engagement programme complemented and informed the wider consultation strategy being undertaken by Council for ‘Fraser Coast 2031’.

Woden Town Centre, Athllon Drive Corridor and Mawson Group Centre Community, Sport and Recreation Facilities Study Community, Sport and Recreation Facilities Study Workshops

This included a program of consultation activities with Territory Government Directorates, internal Environment and Sustainable Development Directorate (ESDD) stakeholders, service providers and others. A Stakeholder Engagement Plan was prepared and reviewed by ESDD and guided the consultation strategy throughout the course of the project.

Key to the strategy was a series of workshops held at key intervals in the study process. Briggs & Mortar assisted in planning and facilitating these.

Briggs & Mortar Pty Ltd will participate in a charrette as part of the final stages of this project.

Housing and Social Infrastructure Workshop

Demanding a complex design framework, the workshop had specific outcomes needed to inform the plan, including:

• A clear understanding of the expected demographic change and housing needs and preferences of the resident and inwardly migrating households (i.e. type of dwellings, most appropriate location of dwellings)
• The relationship between housing and infrastructure, especially social infrastructure, arising from those changes
• The overall availability of social infrastructure to support the projected future population, particularly the high proportion of aged residents
• Documentation, gap analysis and benchmarking of social infrastructure
• Social infrastructure requirements for the nominated areas of urban consolidation.

Briggs & Mortar subsequently assisted in peer reviewing and contributing to the development of the Planning Reports for Housing and Social Infrastructure.

Gold Coast Information Sheets

• Affordable housing (including accessible housing)
• Access and equity
• Community safety
• Social impact assessment
• Aged persons accommodation
• Aged persons in shopping centres

The information sheets were to needed by Council to:

• Raise the profile of socially sustainable developments
• Provide a coherent and accurate message by Council on aspects relating to socially sustainability
• Assist at pre-lodgement meetings with developers
• Provide general education and awareness of both developers and other Council staff.

They were consequently required to be written in community friendly language but also be adequately informative for the development industry and staff members.