August 17, 2022
Gympie Regional Council will be taking its ordinary council meetings on the road in an effort to communicate more effectively with residents of the 6898sq km region.
Mayor Glen Hartwig announced the change on Wednesday.
“Starting this month, we plan on hosting an Ordinary Meeting in selected townships once every three months,” he said.
The first meeting will take place at Goomeri’s Hall of Memory in Boonara Street next Wednesday, August 24, beginning at 9:00am.
Until now, all Gympie Regional Council meetings have been held at the Gympie Council Chambers and livestreamed on social media.
“The reason behind this decision is to allow residents in our other townships the opportunity to attend the meetings in person and give them the chance to catch up with myself and the other councillors afterwards,” Mayor Hartwig said.
“I am personally looking forward to next week’s meeting in Goomeri as I will not only have the chance to debate the important issues facing the region with the Councillors, but I will also have the opportunity to chat face-to-face with Goomeri residents about the important issues they are facing, including those that have arisen as a result of the flood events that took place earlier this year.”
The South Burnett Regional Council ran a similar program of moving its general meetings between towns shortly after the Council amalgamations in 2008.
However, it abandoned the practice four years later because attendances at most meetings by members of the public was negligible.
Since that time all meetings have been held at the Council Chambers in Kingaroy, and livestreamed since April 2020.
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Toowoomba Regional Council is also exploring new ways to engage with residents in regional communities.
Cr Megan O’Hara Sullivan said councillors were looking for more ways to engage with all residents throughout the region, which spans almost 13,000sq km.
“We all get feedback about not being accessible enough so we need to look at ways we can change this as we genuinely want to hear from each community member in the Toowoomba Region,” Cr O’Hara Sullivan said.
“The effects of COVID have been felt right across our region and the impacts of the pandemic have restricted some of our planned community engagement.”
At the Ordinary Meeting of Council on August 16, councillors unanimously supported a motion for a report to be presented in October outlining a variety of options and officer recommendations for additional engagement with regional communities.
As part of this report, Council will investigate the proposal of conducting quarterly Ordinary Meetings of Council in regional townships.
“This shows we are reachable and that we care for all of our regional townships. It also sends a clear message we are invested in these areas and that we want to hear the issues which are most important to our residents in those communities,” Cr O’Hara Sullivan said.
“Having meetings in the smaller communities would provide an opportunity for school groups and residents to interact with us more and it would allow for individuals in those areas to give delegations to Council.”
