How we engaged
From 1 July and 31 August 2024, Council invited all community members across the shire to share their insights to ensure our Community Vision and priorities for the future of Bass Coast are aligned. We facilitated in-person and online activities for community members to share their wants, needs and priorities for the next four years. Questions included:
- What is one thing you love most about Bass Coast?
- What aspect(s) of Bass Coast do you feel are most important to protect and preserve?
- What priority services should the Council consider prioritising?
- What does your ideal future Bass Coast look like?
Community were also asked to rate the relevance (on a scale of irrelevant to highly relevant) of the 2021 Community Vision Focus areas, to understand if they're still relevant today. 2021 Focus areas included:
- Protect and enhance the natural environment
- Access and movement
- Healthy and inclusive communities
- Education, creative economy and industry
- Climate emergency and climate preparedness
Communications & Engagement Methods
Consultation open from 1 July – 31 August 2024
- 234 contributions to the survey
- 1,008 visitors to the project page
- 16 new followers to the site
- 1 email campaign generated to 943 recipients with a 14.95% click-through rate
326 community members attended in total across the 10 sessions.
Times, dates and locations:
Westernport Ward:
- Dalyston Community Hall – Tuesday 9 July 10.00am to 11.30am
- Grantville Shopping Strip – Tuesday 9 July 12.00pm to 1.30pm
- San Remo Foreshore – Friday 23 August 10.00am to 12noon
- Corinella and District Community Centre – Sunday 21 July 12noon to 3.00pm
Bunurong Ward:
- Cape Paterson Community Hall – Wednesday 17 July 3.00pm to 4.30pm
- Wonthaggi Library – Thursday 1 August 10.00am to 1.30pm
- Inverloch Community Hub – Tuesday 13 August 11.00am – 2.00pm
Island Ward:
- Phillip Island Visitor Information Centre – Wednesday 17 July 5.30pm to 7.00pm
- Berninneit Library, Cowes – Tuesday 23 July 11.00am to 2.00pm
- Churchill Island Farmers Market – Saturday 3 August 8.00am to 2.00pm
Emails/meetings/presentations to notify community groups of the engagement opportunity
Groups included:
- Community groups
- Sporting groups
- People over 55
- Disability networks
- Early years (ages 0-5)
- Youth groups (ages 12-25)
- LGBTQIA+ network
- Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) networks
2 Coastell Newsletters sent
- 15 July 2024 – 852 recipients with 38 clicks to Engage page
- 16 August 2024 – 851 recipients with 4 click to Engage page
6 social media posts throughout the engagement period over Facebook and Instagram
Total reach of 9,710 community members, with 10,265 collective views
1 media release on 28 June 2024 with 102 views on Council website
What we heard
The follow data is inclusive of all in-person and online responses.
What community love the most, most want to protect and the highest rated focus area
The communities top 5 priorities that Council should focus on
What the community's ideal future looks like in Bass Coast
Word cloud of community responses
Summary
Council thanks all who contributed and participated in the community engagement activities during this consultation period for the Council Plan review. Your feedback is important, and it will ultimately help shape the final four key strategic documents:
- Community Vision
- Council Plan
- Long Term Financial Plan
- Asset Plan
Based on the engagement feedback, we have met our main objective of better understanding the community wants and needs for the next four years to shape the community vision. We met this objective by delivering shire wide engagement asking community what they love most about Bass Coast, what do they want to protect, what does the ideal future look like, what services do Council need to prioritise. We had in-person and online events and heard from many residents across all three wards.
How we will use your feedback and next steps
In collaboration with Engagement Consultant Mosaic Lab, Council will utilise all feedback gained during this consultation to shape the Community Panel workshops. Here, the 45 community members (chosen at random) who represent the many different backgrounds, age, gender and experiences across the shire, will discuss and debate the feedback findings and develop recommendations to Council to improve the long-term plans.
