Central Coast Council’s newly adopted Engagement Strategy reinforces its commitment to strengthening communication and collaboration with the community.

Adopted at Council’s Ordinary Meeting on 25 March 2025, the strategy sets out clear principles and guidelines for engaging with residents, ensuring they understand their rights and have meaningful opportunities to shape plans and projects for the Central Coast.

Council Executive Officer Performance and Communications, Nicole Jenkins emphasised the importance of open and genuine dialogue between Council and residents to ensure decisions truly reflect community needs. 

“It’s essential that the community has an opportunity to have their say on the strategies, plans and decisions that affect them,” Ms Jenkins said. 

“Through this process, our community told us they wanted greater transparency, more inclusive spaces for youth, stronger accessibility for people with disabilities, diverse representation in decision making and a greater focus on place-based engagement – ensuring local voices shape local decisions. 

“After gathering community feedback in 2024, we worked with Councillors to refine the strategy even further, making sure the voices of the communities they represent were heard.

“Over the next four years, we are committed to making our communication clearer and easier to understand, increasing face-to-face engagement, developing a First Nations Engagement Strategy and where possible, adopting a place-based engagement approach.”

Council Mayor, Lawrie McKinna highlighted the importance of enabling everyone in the community to have a fair opportunity to genuinely participate in Council’s engagement activities and help influence the decisions that affect our region now and in the future.

“Our community wants to be actively involved in helping to shape local decision-making and the Engagement Strategy provides the framework to make that happen,” Mayor McKinna said.  

“Council understands the importance of building relationships with the community and embraces ongoing dialogue to improve decision making processes through timely, transparent, honest, inclusive, accessible and responsive community participation.

“With a strong focus on inclusivity, particularly for First Nations people and equity-deserving groups, this strategy helps improve the experience of all participants involved in community engagement to achieve the highest quality of process and results.”

To read the Community Engagement Strategy, visit Community Engagement Strategy | Your Voice Our Coast