The Citizen’s Forum reached the halfway point and the group continued to learn about the city servicing activities undertaken by Transport Canberra and City Services (TCCS).

By the end of this weekend, they had explored their thinking about the facts, benefits and concerns about each servicing activity in the program scope. They went on to start identifying a vision for city servicing and develop some preliminary recommendations that will be further considered in the final weekend, as they develop the Better Suburbs Statement.

Day 2 - Saturday 4 August

The day started with a presentation on TCCS priorities and decision making by Ben McHugh, Executive Director, City Places and Infrastructure.

The citizens then spent the rest of the day building upon the knowledge learnt on the bus tour during day one of the forum. TCCS staff from 14 different business areas facilitated small groups discussions on the facts, benefits and concerns of the different business area. Insights were recorded on large boards, for the whole group to refer to in future sessions.

View the full Day 2 agenda.

Day 3 – Sunday 5 August

On arrival the group took part in a fun exercise to explore and understand the interactions between the business areas within the program, using colourful balls of wool. Executives of TCCS directorate shared typical business scenarios, whilst a small group of participants representing the 14 business areas used wool to show the connections being discussed. The end result demonstrated the complex network of relationships that occur within the city servicing functions to deliver outcomes.

To fulfill the commitment made about the results of the kitchen table conversations being shared directly into the Forum activities, a presentation was given by the Better Suburbs Project Lead, outlining the preliminary results of the kitchen table discussion guides. A final summary report will be developed shortly. If you would like to be kept updated on the program and the release of this report, please sign up for email updates.

In the afternoon, the group reviewed the material developed on Day 2 and started exploring a city servicing future vision. By the end of the session, the group had considered early recommendations for the Better Suburbs Statement and had begun work on writing the first part of the statement, using a shared document.

View the full Day 3 agenda.

The next days of the Citizen’s Forum are Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 August.