Local councils frequently ask for public submissions on a range of issues or projects, including Long-Term Plans, Annual Plans, Community or Local Board Plans, and a variety of strategies that often affect the arts. Anyone can provide feedback.
These consultation processes are an important opportunity for you to tell mayors and councillors why arts, culture, creativity, and ngā toi Māori matter to you and your community.
Below are some tips to help you prepare your submission. You can adapt these to respond to proposals in your local area or tailor them to reflect your personal experience and priorities.
On this page:
- What is a Long-Term Plan?
- What is an Annual Plan?
- Why is submitting important?
- What to look for in an LTP or Annual Plan
- How to write a good submission
- Helpful resources
What is a Long-Term Plan?
A Long-Term Plan (LTP) sets out what councils aim to achieve for their communities. It outlines the activities and services a council intends to invest in over the next 10 years. Every three years, councils are required to review their LTP.
As part of this process, they must consult with the public and invite community participation. The final plan should reflect what matters most to local communities.
What is an Annual Plan?
An Annual Plan is published in the years between Long-Term Plan (LTP) reviews. It sets out the council’s specific budgets, work programmes, and priorities for the year ahead, and may update the LTP if any significant changes are needed.
The consultation process
Each council runs its own process for seeking feedback from the community.
- Check your council’s website, or contact their service centre, to find out when and how you can give feedback.
- Some councils may offer a submission template or ask a series of specific questions for you to respond to.
- Consultation periods are usually open for around a month, and late submissions are generally not accepted.
- If there is an arts advocacy group in your town, city or rohe, check whether they are preparing a submission. Many of these groups support their communities by sharing information about key arts and culture proposals, or by creating submission templates you can use to help shape your own response.
Why is submitting important?
- An LTP or Annual Plan includes significant decisions about what a council will do and how it will spend its money. Councils genuinely value hearing from the communities who will be affected by these decisions.
- The consultation process is an opportunity to have your say on what you want your community to look and feel like, now, and in the future.
- Community feedback can influence a council to make changes to its draft plan. The more focus or ‘noise’ there is on an issue or opportunity, the more likely a council will listen. Make sure you share your good ideas!
- Councils are responsible for a wide range of services, and are currently facing many challenges including high inflation, infrastructure costs, and climate change. That’s why it’s important to remind them of the value of investing in arts and culture. While services like transport, water and housing are essential services, so too is investing in arts, culture, creativity and ngā toi Maori for the wellbeing of our communities.
What to look for in an LTP or Annual Plan
From an arts and culture perspective, some things to look out for include:
1. Community outcomes or priorities
- Do these articulate the role that arts and culture plays, or could play, in your community?
- Do they reflect the needs and contributions the people in your area – Māori, Pacific, Asian, d/Deaf and disability communities?
- How would investing in arts, culture, creativity and ngā toi Māori, enable your council to achieve its desired outcomes?
- If your council has an arts and culture strategy, do these outcomes reflect those set out in the strategy?
2. Cultural infrastructure (such as whare taonga, museums & arts centres)
- Are you happy with any proposed investments in cultural infrastructure? Is it enough?
- Is there any cultural facility that your community needs and the council should consider investing in?
- How could ngā toi Māori artists and creatives work with the council on cultural infrastructure projects to incorporate ngā toi Māori?
3. Arts and cultural activity & services - such as operation of art galleries, public programmes, events, festivals
- How is your council planning to invest in arts and cultural services? Is it enough?
- How could council work with the local arts community and ngā toi Māori artists and creatives to deliver these activities or services?
- Are the activities consistent with the outcomes and plans in your council’s arts and culture strategy (if it has one)?
4. Changes to fees for using a facility or service
- Is the proposed fee reasonable? Or will it make it difficult for communities to access an art, cultural or ngā toi facility or service?
5. Significant non-arts and culture related projects – such as revitalisation of public space and safety in public spaces
- How could arts and ngā toi Māori artists partner with your council to ensure the project incorporates cultural and creative elements, including the unique history of your city, district, or rohe?
How to write a good submission
Summarise
- Provide a summary of your key points at the start of the submission.
Suggest tangible actions
- Keep your submission focused on actions councils can take. For example, if you think a council’s community outcomes could more strongly recognise the role of arts and culture, provide suggested re-wording. Provide specific examples of venues or activities in your area council could invest in or support.
Be realistic
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Keep your recommendations to an achievable number. Prioritise those most important to you.
Keep it brief
- Often the most effective submissions are the briefest. One to two pages is sufficient if you don’t have time to provide more detail.
Be specific
- Explain how the decisions you want your council to make, or not make, would impact you, your organisation and/or the wider community.
- Specific and actual impacts help your council understand how its decisions will affect you.
- Include examples of the ways investing in arts and culture has wider benefits for your community’s social, economic, cultural and environmental wellbeing.
- Use a mixture of storytelling and data to get your points across.
Talk their talk
- Use the language that local government uses in your submission to make it relatable to them. For example, it’s a good idea to refer to impacts and outcomes.
Remember it’s on the record
- Your submission will likely be made public. If there’s anything you don’t want members of the public to know, don’t include it.
Get feedback
- Ask a colleague, whānau member or friend to review your draft submission.
- Use examples to help guide you
- Practice honing your messages
Use the Narratives for Change guide to help you with framing and messaging
It uses strengths-based strategies to communicate your message clearly and persuasively.
Use the CNZ Fact Finder to support your storytelling with helpful data and facts
Helpful resources
For further information on the consultation process, as well as submission templates and links:
Creative Waikato advocacy resources