The Dunedin City Council is to increase the number of public forums it holds in a bid to improve community engagement with the council.
In a report to the inaugural meeting of the 2013-16 triennium, held yesterday, Mayor Dave Cull said there had been much discussion among local councillors and in general about how best to promote community engagement between citizens and their councils.
While many ways of doing that existed - including the people's panel, which the council set up last year, and which has about 680 people registered who respond to regular surveys from the council - public forums were a place where people could come along and address their elected representatives directly on any topic.
Last term, public forums were held once per committee round - about every six weeks - before the community development committee.
Between September 2012 and July this year, 35 individuals and groups gave presentations at eight public forums.
Mr Cull said he intended to increase the number of public forums to have at least one in each week there was a committee round as well as one before each council meeting.
''This means there will be two, if not three, public forums in each meeting round. I further intend to hold additional public forums in the community - say once every three months - most likely in the early evening, to ensure anyone who may want to address their elected representatives has the opportunity.''
The changes were noted by the council at yesterday's meeting.
One councillor, Cr Jinty MacTavish, has also started cafe drop-in sessions, where anyone who wants to speak to her can book in a time at a cafe.
