Is this really listening?

These days, councils are mindful of the need to be creative when engaging with their communities.

They’re more on the ball with social media and they’ve grasped the importance of presenting information simply, concisely and attractively.

Gone are the days of councils publishing dull, lengthy documents and expecting people to read through them to provide meaningful feedback.

Councils have lately gone so far as to signal what they’re most interested in the public commenting on and some provide templates to make it easier for residents to have their say.

This can work well, but there is also the risk that the public might be shepherded a little too well into providing convenient feedback.

Horowhenua District Council provides a good case study.

The council went to the trouble of not just community engagement for its Long-term Plan, but pre-engagement, and produced attractive documentation about challenges and choices for the district.

Horowhenua residents are facing a series of significant rates rises and the council also wants to give itself more wriggle room on debt. It wants to balance its budget, instead of running up deficits, but doesn’t plan to do that before 2021-2022. The really big thing is that the district must prepare to meet the challenges of growth.

The council put all of that in front of the people, but it’s interesting what it chose to emphasise.

What the council really wanted to know, according to its engagement documents, was how long a swimming pool should stay open, what it should do with community halls and how to handle drinking water and sewerage at the likes of Waita¯ rere Beach.

Really?

It’s tempting to conclude there wasn’t much room for the public to have a real go at influencing very much.

Horowhenua District Council can argue it offered direction to give residents the best chance of providing useful feedback. The council also has separate consultation processes for big topics such as reshaping Levin’s town centre and dealing with earthquake-prone buildings.

It’s worth pointing out, though, that residents were entitled to comment on anything in the council’s budgets, whether that be an upgrade of the Tokomaru waste treatment plant costing $500,000 next year, improving Lake Horowhenua’s water with $335,000 in 2019-20, Levin wastewater reticulation ‘‘renewals’’ costing more than $5 million in 2036-37 or a $20m sewerage scheme for O¯ hau.

Much of the district’s infrastructure was built in the 1960s and 70s. Many of the district’s water pipes and fittings will fail in the next 10 years. For years, Horowhenua District Council kept rates low by underspending. Then it had to catch up. It has become one of the councils in the most need of being watched carefully.

To be fair, Horowhenua District Council’s consultation document was well thought-through and quite well edited. There was nothing too challenging for the public. Was it too easy?

Let us hope residents felt free to provide all the relevant feedback they could.