Alum Cliffs Track Public Consultation – A huge win for the community of Kingborough

PlaceSpeak’s first Australian consultation process came to a close this week and proved to be a huge win for the Kingborough municipality in Tasmania.

The consultation was initiated by Kingborough councillor Dean Winter to encourage discussion on a proposed dog ban at the Alum Cliff Track in his community.

Councillor Winter was pleasantly surprised with the public response. “By using online consultation, I was able to receive three times as much feedback as Council did officially through its traditional consultation processes.”

Almost 90% of people who responded to the survey thought ‘on lead’ dog walking was the sensible way forward. As a direct result of the PlaceSpeak consultation, Council agreed to allow dogs to the new area ‘on lead.’

A successful first consultation is the just beginning according to David Bartlett, former Tasmanian premier who is co-ordinating the rollout of PlaceSpeak in Australia. Bartlett is hoping more politicians will be taking advantage of the tool to connect with the community in ways that had not been possible before. He further stated that with platforms like PlaceSpeak “there is a massive economic opportunity to reduce costs and produce better services and outcomes.”