By JOLENE OGLE
THE pilot Noosa Community Jury has been deemed a success by council staff, with a report to the planning and organisation committee on Tuesday (18 August) outlining the jury’s achievements.
The report said the jury reached a consensus on a “difficult and complex” topic and delivered a report with a full set of recommendations that all jury members stood by, and the trial received “overwhelmingly positive” feedback from the jurors.
A survey of the jurors’ experience was conducted by a PHD research student from USC and found an overwhelming majority of jurors felt their participation had increased their trust in Noosa Council as a collaborative and engaged council, a majority of jurors thought they were provided with comprehensive information about waste management and council processes to inform their decision-making, plus a majority thought the jury was a positive initiative.
Some of the individual feedback included comments such as “I would sum up the experience as rewarding”, and “I commend Noosa Council for this initiative”.
One response read: “I found being a member of the first Noosa jury an interesting learning experience. The guest speakers were informative and the whole process was very well-organised.”
The report also said there was “room for improvement” when it came to implementing the next community jury.
Councillor feedback included the recommendation to better educate the community about the organic waste issue, encourage greater community interest in the topic and more widely communicate the jury’s findings as a “ground-breaking and worth sharing process”.
The report made a number of recommendations for improvement including advising staff “patience is required” as it can take several months for jurors to digest the large amounts of information they receive, as well as encouraging the public to attend the community jury meetings.
The second community jury has been chosen and the 24 jury members will have their first meeting on 22 August at Noosa Council chambers, Pelican Street, Tewantin.
The public is welcome to attend as the group begin five months developing recommendations as to how Noosa River can be better managed, the role council should play and the resources it should apply.
