Issue - meetings

Mrs Angela Woodhouse, the Head of Policy, Communications and Governance, introduced the Communications and Engagement Action plan for 2018-19. It was noted that the action plan followed the themes agreed in the Council’s Communication and Engagement Strategy and detailed the communications support planned for services across the Council. The previous time the Action Plan had been considered by the Committee, further detail had been requested and this had been provided.

In response to questions from the Committee, it was confirmed that:

·  16-24 year olds were a hard group to engage with, so the Communications Team was trying different channels to engage with this group including exploring the use of Snapchat, Instagram and Linkedin.

·  The Communications Team were working with One Maidstone in any areas of common interest.

·  The Council’s Returning Officer had an obligation to encourage participation in elections, particularly for those groups that had potential barriers to participation that the Council could address.

The Committee made the following suggestions for the Communications Team to include in their engagement work:

·  Ensuring the name of the ward in which the household was located in was included on the Council Tax bill at annual billing time.

·  Improvements were required to the form that allowed residents to report fly tipping.

·  Information on numbers of prosecutions for fly tipping, dog fouling and littering should be continue to be published in Borough Insight.

·  Exploring the possibility of using Kent County Council’s Highway Information Boards to display messages from Maidstone Borough Council as well.

RESOLVED:

That the Communication and Engagement Action Plan for 2018-19, as set out in Appendix A, is approved.

Voting:  For - 14  Against - 0  Abstentions - 1