Council has adopted the updated Significance and Engagement Policy. You can read the final policy here.

Ōpōtiki District Council is keen to hear your thoughts on our Significance and Engagement Policy. This policy is updated every three years alongside the Long Term Plan process. Every Council is required to adopt a Significance and Engagement Policy in line with Section 76AA of the Local Government Act (2002).

What is a Significance and Engagement Policy?

This policy provides Council with a framework to determine the significance level of a decision Council is facing. The significance level then helps guide Council toward the level and type of community engagement required to help inform good decision-making.

There are a range of considerations when determining significance level, including financial cost, effect on levels of service delivered by Council, community interest in the decision, and who might be affected by the decision. Council uses the criteria in the policy to determine the significance level of a decision (or proposal, issue, etc.), and then to determine the level and type of community engagement about the decision.

The higher the significance level, the more Council will seek community engagement.

Read our draft Significance and Engagement Policy here.

What have we updated?

The main updates to this policy are:

• Improved flowchart for ease of use when determining significance level.
• Clarifications added to high significance thresholds.
• An additional method of engagement with the community - "Kōrero" - that Council already implements but which had not previously been captured within the policy.

The content and requirements of this policy otherwise remain largely unchanged, outside of clarifying additions, as these are set under Section 76AA of the Local Government Act (2002).

Tell us your thoughts!

Whenever the Significance and Engagement Policy is updated, it must go through public consultation that gives effect to the Special Consultative Procedure as outlined in Section 83 of the Local Government Act (2002) - you can read more about this process in our Significance and Engagement Policy.

The consultation period for this policy is now closed. Thank you for your submissions.