Last Tuesday representatives of the Lyttelton Harbour Information Centre, Lyttelton Community Association, Lyttelton Harbour Business Association and Project Lyttelton made joint submissions to the Community Board about the draft Master Plan for Lyttelton.  The key asks in the submissions were:

All the submitters gave current examples of what they are looking for. They explained an all inclusive process where interested parties from both sides sit around the table and work collaboratively together to work through the issues that they have as we move forward.  This is essential so the community begins to feel we have ownership of the process and not merely input.

Sarah van der Burch from the Lyttelton Community Association defined partnership as all interested parties working together towards an agreed upon goal. “Each party is an expert in their area – in that 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 and out of the wind and which are not, and we know who to go to ask for both information and thoughts as to appropriateness of ideas. This local knowledge is critical for a locally owned outcome”.

A good local example of this working recently was council representatives and all community groups working together to decide how local earthquake funds could be distributed and what local funding needs where. We all sat around the table and came up with the answers together. It was a joint solution. We all went away happy.

This style of working is what we want applied to our Master Plan and any other initiatives that apply to the recovery of our area. This is the model that has been shown to be best practice overseas. We know from feedback submitted so far that our local community want to be actively engaged, this sort of model will enable that to happen.

Other issues highlighted by the submitters included:

The final proposal to the City Council is a joint proposal between the community and council team.  Community Board members advised the submitters and the members of the public who attended the meeting that the next step in the process would be another community meeting on October 17^th.

We hope the next step will open the way for greater community participation.