Community Participation and Engagement Plan review

Council adopted the revised CPEP! 

What is the CPEP? 

Coffs Harbour City Council’s Community Participation and Engagement Plan explains how you can be a part of Council’s decision making processes. Council shares the community’s passion and pride in the Coffs Harbour area and we are committed to working together to celebrate our lifestyle and preserve our natural environment. Our decisions will become more aligned to our community’s aspirations as we continue to learn and grow together.

How the CPEP informs Council's approach to community engagement in planning, activities, programs and some policies.

What is community engagement?

Community engagement is an intentional process that Council uses when making decisions with or on behalf of community members

Changes made in the reviewed CPEP

We have made a few changes to encourage meaningful engagement and participation from the broader community.

• Document structure and content 

We have added new headings to help locate information in the document and removed information that was repeated in different sections. Some technical information has been removed and replaced with plain English.

• Non- mandatory notification requirements

We have spelt out more clearly when and how the community can expect to be notified on engagement processes that Council is delivering.

• Images

New images have been added to refresh the document.

The review also considered the results from Council's Biennial Community Wellbeing Survey question: “Do you feel you have the opportunity to have your say on important issues that affect your community?”. The result from this question increased from 61% in 2018 to 69% in 2020, which is a positive result for Council.

Background Info 

Council’s current CPEP was adopted by Council on 12 December 2019. When the CPEP was adopted a commitment was made to review the document within twelve months to ensure it continues to meet its objectives and to enable further alignment with Council policies and protocols.