Mr. Paul Hogan:

To clarify, this is at the very initial stage of the process where there is an element of blue sky thinking and no plan has been drafted or prepared. It is prior to even the direction stage. The improvement for the future is the fact that it can be either an in-person or an online format. Generally speaking, these things are discussed and negotiated at council level. The problem, as it stands, is that the only option is a public meeting and that format is not particularly suitable to a stage of the process where no proposals are being put forward. In addition, it tends to give rise to two groups of people. One group are people looking for something, typically landowners, who may wish to have a rezoning and that cannot even be considered at this stage of the process. Also, there tend to be people who may be engaged by a planning issue that may have nothing to do with the development plan and, again, they can be frustrated by this stage of the process too. The public meeting format does not necessarily focus on the issues at hand. As has been said, things like webinars and online interactive information, such as videos, that people can look at online in their own time, are often as effective and can engage people, particularly younger people or people who for whatever reason cannot make a particular meeting at a particular time.

We are due to issue updated guidelines on development plans very shortly. We will make it very clear in that guidance that it is expected that these matters will be discussed at council level with the elected members as to what the best format is. It will probably be combination where there are no constraints and restrictions. We do not want to box the process into a public meeting that is inappropriate at the very early stage.