Long Term Plan engagement to cost $50,000

ENGAGEMENT: The Rotorua Lakes Council is preparing to engage the community with its Long Term Plan process. PHOTO/ FILE

Engaging people with the Long Term Plan process may come with a $50,000 price tag for the Rotorua Lakes Council.

The council is gearing up for consultation on the Long Term Plan (LTP), which will outline the council's direction, major projects, and spending until 2028.

With the draft plan expected to be released to the public at the end of the month, staff today outlined to the council's Strategy, Policy and Finance Committee how they intended to engage the community in the process.

In a report prepared for the committee, governance and corporate planning manager Oonagh Hopkins says engagement activities would include online engagement, pop up stations, community led engagement, community conversations, and special interest group forums.

The budget for engagement was $50,000.

That included $15,000 for advertising, such as information boards, posters, newspaper adverts and back of bus advertising, and $10,000 for public information sessions.

The budget was accounted for within the existing operational budgets for communications and corporate planning/governance.

"Active engagement and steering members of the community towards Let's Talk will be a major component in raising people's awareness of the consultation document and encouraging them to provide feedback," Hopkins says in the report.

Following a question from councillor Tania Tapsell, Hopkins confirmed online and social media marketing would be part of the engagement process.

The committee voted to recommend the full council endorse the engagement plan.

A draft copy of the LTP consultation document would be given to councillors early next week.

The document is expected to be approved on February 28.

LTP timetable

- Approve consultation document: February 28
- Open consultation: March 5
- Community Engagement: March 5 to April 13
- Consultation and submissions close: April 13
- Deliberations: May 16 to 18
- Adoption of Long Term Plan 2018-2028: June 28