The Tweed Shire Water Supply Augmentation Community Working Group (Community Working Group, or CWG) was established by Tweed Shire Council to assist Council select a preferred option from four shortlisted water supply augmentation options. Having completed its responsibilities, the CWG has been disbanded.
The CWG met to discuss and deliberate issues during five meetings held between 1 December 2009 and 1 March 2010, and produced a CWG report(PDF, 9MB) representing the views, interests and issues of members together with a summary of group recommendations for consideration by Council.
The consultation process allowed for robust debate and some further community input into this major infrastructure decision for Council. The CWG report was placed on public display so it could be referenced by the community. The report is not a Tweed Shire Council document, but rather a compilation of the views, interests and issues of the individual members and areas where there was some common or majority position or finding.
How were CWG recommendations used?
The CWG report and recommendations were used by Council and the Community in several ways:
- It was made available as a public document for the community to reference; potentially providing additional information and guidance to the public in making their own submissions to Council.
- It was used to inform the Multi-Criteria Analysis(PDF, 41KB) (MCA) fine-screening process together with input from other sources such as the Aboriginal community, Government Agencies, consultants’ reports and other public submissions. This enabled Council to include these views within the assessment when determining a preferred option from the short-listed options.
- Comments on the advantages and disadvantages of the community consultation process will be used to improve future community consultation for this and other Council projects.
The Community Working Group (CWG)
The CWG consisted of members(PDF, 22KB) of the Tweed Shire community and aimed to be a representative cross-section of the Tweed Shire community.
The role of the CWG was to investigate the options in some detail, collect and disseminate information with stakeholders and the wider community, and to work with Council to identify the key environmental and social issues associated with each option. It aimed to assist Council to find the best solution(s) to the following challenge:
- Respecting the local and regional environment
- Minimising adverse impacts of construction and operation on people, homes, and businesses
- Supporting the economic, social and cultural life of the area
- Maintaining a safe, reliable and cost effective water supply that meets the Shire’s needs to the year 2036
The CWG was consultative in nature; not a decision making body. Decision making powers are retained by Tweed Shire Council.
Membership
Members of the CWG represented the range of key interests, positions and concerns associated with the selection of a preferred augmentation option.
Stakeholder groups represented included:
- Residents of Tweed Shire’s three geographical residential regions, namely: Tweed Heads, Murwillumbah and rural communities, and the Tweed coast
- Landholders whose land would be directly physically affected by one of the options
- Business and Commercial community within Tweed Shire
- Relevant environmental organisations and interests
- Local government Councillors
- Fisher, water user, or catchment user groups relevant to the options
Council has been and will continue to consult with the Aboriginal community through the Aboriginal Advisory Committee (AAC) and directly with the Aboriginal Community to ensure that all parties are kept informed and involved with the process. The AAC nominated interim representation from the Aboriginal Community on the CWG.
CWG Members were selected from a large number of nominations. On 22 October 2009 Council called for nominations for the CWG from any resident of Tweed Shire, and nominations for most positions closed on 17 November 2009.
The representatives of residents, environmental, business and catchment user groups were selected by an impartial selection panel from Southern Cross University (SCU)(PDF, 88KB) according to predetermined selection criteria(PDF, 26KB). The remaining representatives were nominated directly by their stakeholder group.
Communications
CWG members were encouraged to discuss issues and disseminate information about water and the water supply augmentation options with stakeholders and the wider community. Contact details of all CWG members were widely distributed, and Stakeholders and the wider community were encouraged to contact CWG members to ensure their concerns were heard and included in CWG deliberations.
The CWG met five times over the course of the community consultation process. The first meeting was held 1 December 2009, with the last meeting held on 1 March 2010. Minutes of each meeting were recorded and are published on the website together with the group’s report.
Minutes, the final report and other information the CWG determined appropriate have been made available to the public via the CWG members, Council’s website and through distribution to those on the “Interested Parties Register”.