A meeting was held on Friday 26th June 2008 at the South Coast NRM offices in 39 Mercer Road
Albany to discuss the prototype of the Support Tool. The following notes are derived from the meeting and discussions with some of the stakeholders in the days before the meeting and are based on the key issues.
EditArrangement of information
The general feeling was that there was on one hand too much information too quickly and not being able to get to the information that would be most used quickly enough. It was felt that the people who would be using it most i.e. local government planners would want to go straight to the issues and the associated resources. A number of things were suggested to address this:
- Make the front page simpler and be more concise about who the main target audience was. It needed to be clear that it was to do with NRM and local government planning, that it was focused on rural residential and smallholdings and that the intention was to expand it over time. A design outline to this effect will be developed and posted on the site for review and comment.
- Focus on those activities undertaken most, that is development control and subdivision design and control. Activities such as local planning strategies, town planning schemes and structure planning are not undertaken as frequently so should not get as much emphasis.
EditPresentation
Currently the best practice is presented at the head of the page followed by a brief sentence of what the best practice constitutes. This is then followed by a more detailed description of the best practice as it relates to the planning instrument e.g. local planning strategy or subdivision. Resources to support implementation are then listed. Merged with the resources are references associated with the drivers for implementing the best practice, such as policy references. It was felt that it was important to know the policy basis for the best practice but that this should be located at the bottom of the page. Similarly the ability to identify those resources which were
essential to implementing the best practice versus those that were
desirable background reading was seen as important.
EditMaintenance of information
The support tool was thought to be a good idea but maintenance of the information was seen to be a key issue. People will only use it if they are sure that it has up-to-date, relevant, credible information. This issue will be addressed in the final report due later in 2008.
EditExpansion of information
The current focus on the support tool is on local government planning for rural residential/smallholdings. There are a number of other uses which are of topical interest to local planners including extractive industries, horticulture, tree plantations, aquaculture and intensive animal industries (derived from workshop 1). A program for providing information on these and other uses (wind turbines in rural residential properties was raised as a potential issue) needed to be developed. Similarly as themes e.g. climate change developed interest then these needed to be addressed.
EditLocal best practice integration
The support tool currently has a lot of information in it which relates to State best practice. Alot of this informatoin has been developed for Swan Coastal Plain and Perth conditions. Some information is not as relevant to the South Coast region. An example of water sensitive urban design and drainge management was given. On the South Coast the idea of rain gardens was given as something which was being considered for the South Coast. These are used in the Eastern States but not so much in WA and may have application to the region. the ability to adapt the knowledge base and provide planners and others with information about issues and research was seen as an issue.
EditDocumentation of best practices
There are alot of good things occuring in the region in terms of best/good practice and land use planning. The support tool needed to be able to capture this informatoin and provide easy access to it by others in the region dealing with similar issues. The idea of employing a student to work with planners to document the best/good practices for integration with the support tool was raised as an idea.
EditInformation on latest research
Use of the support tool for communication of the latest information relevant to planning e.g. climate change was seen to be a potential use of the tool.
EditResearch priorities
Use of the tool to help determine research priorities was suggested. The example of research into rain gardens above is an example of something which has been identified as being possibly relevant across the region. The support tool can be used to identify research needs and priorities across the region for representation to GOTAG/ South Coast NRM and other funding bodies.
EditPosted comments
The ability to find out about comments posted or comments responded to was suggested. Similarly the ability of the developer to find out about comments across the whole site was indicated as being a useful feature.
EditQ&A and Help Me sections
Having sections or forums where planners could post issues they are experiencing and benefit from the collective experience, knowledge of the group was seen as potentially useful. One LGA indicated for example that they had recieved an application for a wind power generator in a rural residential area. Assistance on dealing with it was seen as potentially useful.
EditLocal news/happenings
Mention was made of a workshop with engineers and hydrologists held recently to discuss drainage issues and the use of rain gardens. One planner indicated that it would have been useful to know about such discussions. Having a local news section emailed to users could potentially be useful.