South Australia’s City of Burnside has shown how it went from receiving just four items of community feedback on its asset management plan to being inundated by more than 800. 

In her presentation at the IPWEA International Public Works Conference, Michelle Kennedy, Group Manager Assets and Infrastructure, spoke about how the City overhauled its community consultation process, by focusing on two key areas: the format and content of the asset management plan, and the community engagement techniques employed.

Kennedy said that when the City of Burnside last engaged the community on asset management plans in 2013, only four community responses were received. 

“There is a growing recognition that we should be trying harder to engage with our communities,” she said. 

The paper Kennedy presented stated:  

“The first versions of asset management plans developed by the City were largely developed by and for technical staff. There were no targets around many of the service levels no processes in place to measure whether these service levels were being met. The approach to community engagement was reflective of the perception that they were internal documents.” 

“The resulting four pieces of community feedback were not used to alter the plans or approach in any way, and were noted to be general in nature and not actually applicable to the asset management plan.” 

Recognising that a different approach was needed, Kennedy says the team approached the asset management plan differently; technical content was translated into graphics, FAQs were added, and terminology was simplified. 

The engagement process included:

• an advert placed in the local newspaper
• full documents made available online and at the customer service desk
• inclusion in the organisation’s electronic newsletter, the ‘latest news’ section of the corporate website, and promotion via Twitter
• emails sent directly to those registered on the organisation’s community engagement mailing list, with a link to the survey
• emails sent directly to the organisation’s sporting and recreation clubs, with a link to the survey
• hard copy survey and reply paid envelope provided in the organisation’s quarterly magazine mailed to all properties in the council area 

The engagement process ran from 22 September 2016 to 21 October 2016, during which time 838 pieces of feedback were received.

The five key learning from the project were: 

1. Simplify complex information

2. Ask specific questions

3. Understand your community’s communication preferences

4. Leverage existing communication channels where possible 

5. Demonstrate that feedback is valued and being used

The IPWEA International Public Works Conference is running August 20-23 in Perth. To view photos from the conference, visit IPWEA's Instagram page.