On Tuesday 27 September Sarah Van der Burch from the Lyttelton Community Association, presented this deputation to the Lyttelton Mt Herbert Community Board in response to residents concerns that the Council is working to a regime of dictating via consultation; rather than working in partnership with the community:

I would like to thank the Community Board and the Council for the work to date on supporting this community with the rebuilding of both its infrastructure and its spirit.  We have a good start.  I feel that the people who have been involved to date have worked tirelessly to help us achieve the best results and this deputation is not directed towards anything except the process we are currently engaged in.  We are asking the Community Board, as our elected  representatives, to secure a change in that process – to move us from a consultative model to a partnership model.

Consultation is defined as someone coming to me and asking for my input or opinion so that they can go off and solve the problem with my input.  The results of the outcome belong to both of us; however, the ownership of the solution, unless we are working a 50/50 partner ship, rests with the consultant.  Consultation is a tool that has many uses.  I believe here that we have gone beyond the usefulness of the tool and we need to utilize one that is more appropriate for the outcome we are all looking for.  I have spoken with our Suburban Centre’s people a number of times and they are adamant that they want Lytteltonians to ‘own’ the outcome of the Master Planning Process.  However, using the consultation process we are  currently engaged in, we would feel that we have had input but not ownership of the solutions.

If we do in fact believe that ownership is critical, which I believe we all do, then it is imperative to move from consultation to partnership.  Partnership is defined by parties working together towards an agreed upon goal.  Each party is an expert in their area – in this Council knows more about where the money is, the planning guidelines, what has worked elsewhere, what has not, etc. and the residents of Lyttelton (many are experts in their fields) are experts in how our community is used daily, how we socialize, which areas are sunny, out of the wind and which are not, we know who to go to ask for information and thoughts as to appropriateness of ideas. Local knowledge is critical for a successful and locally owned outcome.

I attended the International Speakers Series last month and listened intently to the two people who spoke very specifically to the processes their communities went through to rebuild.  Both Charles Eadie of Santa Cruz and Kerry O’Neil of Victoria spoke eloquently of the need during the rebuild to have the local people either in partnership at the planning table (Santa Cruz) or ‘owning the process’ (Victoria).  They both reiterated this was crucial to their having highly successful outcomes of their rebuilds. They spoke of how the partnership between the governing bodies and the local residents allowed people to heal and created the best results.  Their processes are recognized globally as ‘best practice’ examples.  We know, from all the recent studies, that the process of the rebuild is the beginning of the healing and that the process used is key to the success of the end result.

With that, we, the Lyttelton Community Association, The Lyttelton Harbour Information Centre, the Lyttelton Harbour Business Association and Project Lyttelton  ask you, the Community Board, to ensure that we, the Lyttelton Community, works in partnership with Council going forward.  We want the draft plan presented to Council to be a joint proposal.  In reality, we simply want to do what everyone is looking for – have ownership of the results.

Deputation:  Sarah van der Burch - Lyttelton Community Association