Council discusses Hill strategy with community at briefing session

24 April 2007

On Wednesday 18 April more than 80 residents attended Council’s Doncaster Hill Community Briefing Session, which included an update on recent activity, plans for future development and an opportunity for questions.

In his official welcome, Manningham Mayor, Cr Ron Kitchingman emphasised that “Council places a high importance on engaging the community and relevant stakeholders as we move forward with the Doncaster Hill Strategy.”

Presentations by Manningham Director of Environmental Amenity, Paul Molan, and Westfield Doncaster Community Relations Manager, Paul Murphy, updated attendees on the progress of the respective projects. The open forum then allowed a number of attendees to raise issues of concern.

These included parking, traffic, public transport, water efficiency, land values, heights, improved pedestrianisation and the current impact of the Westfield demolition.

In a display of the high level of interest in the Doncaster Hill Strategy, the open forum extended well beyond the scheduled finishing time of 9.00pm, and Councillors and Council Officers then stayed on after the session to speak to a number of people individually.

Feedback received by Council at the end of the night through feedback forms showed that the information session was generally well received.

Attendees were fairly evenly split between those who were previously well informed about the project and those who had limited knowledge of Doncaster Hill. A large majority of respondents indicated that they were satisfied with the session, and more than 40 per cent of those went further, rating it ‘excellent’ or ‘good’.

Fourty-six per cent of those who responded said that they are ‘very confident’ or ‘confident’ about the progress of the Doncaster Hill project, with 37 per cent stating that they were ‘not confident’ or ‘doubtful’, and 17 per cent saying their feelings were ‘neutral’.

Ninety-five per cent of those who filled in feedback forms said that they would like to be kept informed regularly about the project.

The feedback received from the session will help Council to address issues of importance to the community, including those raised in the open forum, and to improve the process for future Doncaster Hill briefing sessions and consultations.