Draft Community Engagement Policy

Simply put, community engagement is the two-way conversation between Council and the people who live, work, or spend time in Prospect. It’s the process we use to gather your local knowledge, ideas, and feedback before Council makes a final decision on a project, program, initiative or local law.

Our Community Engagement Policy is our rules and commitments for how we seek your feedback on Council projects, programs, and initiatives. It sets the mandatory rules to ensure you’re kept informed and given a fair opportunity to have your say on the things that affect your neighbourhood, whether that's a major city-wide project or an upgrade to your local park.

We’re updating our policy for two main reasons:

1. New rules: The South Australian Government has introduced a Community Engagement Charter that sets minimum requirements for all local councils. As a result, we need to update our existing policy to align with these new laws.
2. A better conversation: We want to use this opportunity to learn how we can better connect with you, remove any barriers to participation, and make it easier for busy people to join our future consultations.

This new draft policy is a complete overhaul of how we approach public consultation. The four biggest shifts from our old policy include:

• Tailored timeframes: We’re proposing to scale consultation durations to match the actual size, complexity, and community impact of the project.
• Targeted promotion: How we let you know about an opportunity to have your say - whether through social media, letterbox drops, or physical signs - will be customised to ensure we’re effectively reaching the right people.
• Greater transparency: We’ll clearly state from day one what is actually "negotiable" (open to change based on your feedback) versus what’s fixed.
• Mandatory feedback loops: Formally locking in a rule that Council must always report back to you after a consultation closes, showing exactly how community input was used as part of Council’s decision-making process.

Your input will help to shape our rules of engagement. Specifically, we want your thoughts on:

• Timeframes: How long consultations should stay open, and how they should scale depending on the impact of a proposal.
• Promotional methods: Your preferred ways to hear about upcoming projects (e.g., letters, social media, physical signage).
• The formats: Whether you prefer to share your thoughts through fast, digital formats like 1-click online polls, or face-to-face community workshops.
• The loop: How you want us to report back to you on how your feedback shaped the final Council decision.

Yes. Because this update is driven by changes to state laws, there are certain baseline legal requirements set by the South Australian Government that Council must follow. For example, we cannot reduce the consultation period for ‘Significant’ projects below the mandated 21-day statutory minimum. We also can’t alter certain legal definitions or formal public notice requirements set out in the South Australian Local Government Act (1999).

We’re asking you to help us decide that!

We’re trying to find the perfect sweet spot. We need a timeline that gives you enough time to have your say but doesn't create unnecessary delays and leaves you waiting months for basic upgrades.

Share your thoughts on how long consultations should be open for with us by taking our survey.

Yes, absolutely. You don’t have to be a rate-paying property owner to have your say. Whether you rent a home, run a local business, study, work, or just regularly visit our city, you're part of the Prospect community. If Council’s decisions impact your experience in the area, your voice matters and we want to hear from you.

The full draft Community Engagement Policy is available to download from the Document Library on the right-hand side of our Engagement Hub page. Physical copies can also be picked up from the Customer Service desk at Payinthi (128 Prospect Road, Prospect).

We’re committed to closing the feedback loop. The same Community Engagement Report that Council will receive will be published right here on the Engagement Hub and emailed directly to anyone who registers for project updates. This report will outline what we heard during the consultation period.

Our Elected Members will make the final decision. Once the consultation closes on Sunday 9 August, Council staff will gather and analyse each submission. A summary of community feedback will be presented to Council at a workshop in mid-August for discussion. Following this, a formal Community Engagement Report will be prepared, finalised and provided to Council, as well as any proposed amendments to the draft policy based on the feedback received through the community engagement process. At the Council Meeting on Tuesday August 25 2026, Council will vote on whether to officially adopt the final policy.

Yes please!

In local government, we often only hear from people when they want to change, delay, or object to a proposal or project. If you support a proposal, letting us know is just as critical. Positive feedback gives Council a balanced, accurate view of community sentiment. It ensures that a project the "silent majority" actually wants doesn't get dropped or radically altered based on a handful of objections.

The most valuable feedback doesn’t just say "I love this" or "I hate this" - it explains why. Telling us how a proposal or project will practically affect your daily routine, your local business, or how your family uses a street or park gives Council the exact context we need.

If you don't agree with a proposal, offering a realistic alternative or a compromise is always helpful. It gives both Council and our project teams real-world insights to work with when refining final designs or policies.

Community engagement and consultations aren't a public referendum or a vote. While your feedback is a critical piece of Council’s decision-making puzzle, it sits alongside other mandatory considerations. Elected Members must balance community sentiment with financial realities, environmental impacts, legal requirements, and the city’s long-term sustainability. Our commitment to you is that your voice will always be genuinely heard and used to inform final decisions, even if Council ultimately has to balance that feedback against other non-negotiable factors.

It’s a fair question, and scepticism is completely understandable. To be upfront, consultation rarely starts with a completely blank page. By the time a project or proposal reaches public consultation, key background work such as technical design, safety considerations and budgeting has already happened to ensure a proposal is actually feasible.

However, your feedback regularly reshapes the outcome, whether it’s tweaking a playground design based on what its regular visitors say, altering construction timelines to have the least impact on your day-to-day life, or amending our Annual Business Plan and Budget to ensure the project we’re funding reflects what’s most important to you.

If an aspect of a project or proposal is truly unchangeable, our new draft policy requires us to tell you that clearly on day one.

The best way to stay in the loop is to register on our Engagement Hub website. By creating a quick profile, you can opt in to get automatic email alerts whenever a new project, park upgrade, or traffic plan is launched right in your neighbourhood. Click here to register today.

You can also subscribe to our monthly e-newsletter, Your Prospect eNews, to get a regular update of upcoming Council events, programs, initiatives and consultation opportunities. Click here to sign up today.