Although the council is coy about the final participant list, it’s expected that up to 30 leading local service providers will participate.
Responding to a TWiSK request for a list of participants, Mayor Louise Crawford stated that the roundtable involves police and service providers, including those in drug and alcohol, housing, mental health, and other sectors, looking at ways to work together with the council to improve community safety outcomes.
She defended the decision not to include community representation, stating that the roundtable was designed as a working group for service providers rather than as an avenue for community comment.
However, she wants the community to be assured that there will be many opportunities for their input.
‘There will be extensive community engagement on the [new] Community Safety Plan later on, including the outcomes of the roundtable. Our response to community concerns includes developing a new Community Safety Plan to guide us over the next four years,’ she said.
A community engagement plan for the Community Safety Plan will be considered at a public council meeting in May.
Other inputs into the Community Safety Plan include a review of local laws already underway. The review is solely an investigation, and no decisions have been made.
Mayor Crawford said the process of developing the new Community Safety Plan wouldn’t delay safety initiatives. She noted that the council had already agreed to fund additional local law patrols in the afternoons year-round, as current patrols do not occur after 2 PM in winter.
Here are the questions we submitted to Council’s media unit
Can Ian Gray or the Mayor please say how these stakeholders will be involved:
The community
The politicians who ultimately make the funding decisions;
The media who will need to communicate about the roundtable.
Scheduled for Mid-March?
Do you have a date? Who will be the participants and their organisations?
Will councillors be involved?
How will the outcomes be communicated?
Here is the council statement in full
Media Response – to be attributed to Port Phillip Council Mayor Louise Crawford
Community safety is a significant priority for our Council. Our response to community concerns includes developing a new Community Safety Plan to guide us over the next four years.
A key input into the new Community Safety Plan is our convening of the Community Safety Roundtable later this month.
The Roundtable involves police and service providers (drug and alcohol, housing, mental health, etc.) looking at ways they can work together with our Council to improve community safety outcomes. The Roundtable was designed as a working group for service providers rather than as an avenue for community comment.
There will, however, be extensive community engagement on the Community Safety Plan later on, including the outcomes of the roundtable. Opportunities for community engagement will be both online and in person. The community engagement plan for the Community Safety Plan will be considered at a public Council Meeting in May.
Other inputs into the Community Safety Plan include a review of local laws already underway. The review is an investigation only and no decisions have been made. Any proposed local laws changes would be released for community engagement.
As improvements are identified, they can be progressed without waiting for the completion of the new Community Safety Plan. For example, our Council has already agreed to provide funding for additional local law patrols in the afternoons year round. Currently patrols do not occur after 2 pm in winter.
