Councillors need to provide strategic leadership and decisions based on high quality information and long term goals that encourage wide understanding of and participation in the key drivers of economic wellbeing and community development.
Council staff have a facilitation role to increase cooperation within the region and advocacy capability and capacity on behalf of the region.
Council should be advocating for far more local accountability of public funds spent in the region but currently answerable only to Wellington.
The Council urgently needs a well considered policy statement and plan, developed in partnership with the community, for its role in Social Development. This could have a similar structure to the recently released Draft Economic Development Strategy (A Framework for Sustainable Prosperity) which provides an excellent overview of how Council can best contribute to ensuring a sustainable future for the region.
Sunshine Sermons 