Public relations move by council cttee

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33929, 23 August 1975, Page 16

Public relations move by council cttee

The public should be better catered for at meetings of the Christchurch City Council, and “a panel of present and former councillors” should be formed to address senior secondary school classes and students at the Christchurch Teachers’ College.

These are recommendations of the council’s social services and public relations committee, as part of a new public relations exercise.

The formation of a councillors’ panel to address senior pupils at secondary schools might stimulate interest in the council’s business, a sub-committee had suggested.

It had also suggested that naturalisation ceremonies be “more of a momentous occasion” for those being naturalised — all councillors should attend, and a photographer should take a photograph of each person receiving his or her certificate of citizenship from the Mayor — and that teaspoons bearing the Christchurch coat of arms be purchased as “suitable small gifts for lady visitors.” These suggestions were adopted by the committee as recommendations to the City Council.

The encouragement of service organisations to attend council meetings was also recommended, and likewise the better seating of councillors at meetings. The latter would place them in full view of the public gallery and enable the public to hear proceedings better. Before council meetings began, senior officers of the council might be asked to address the gallery briefly on procedural matters, it was recommended. The committee will also recommend the council to advertise in newspapers the dates and times of standing

committee meetings, and to ask chairmen of standing committees to publicise items they consider of importance to the public. The committee also discussed "the too-formal way” in which town-planning notices were printed in the public notices columns of newspapers.

“There is little that can be done regarding the formal notices, as departures from the present system would not meet the requirements of the Town and Country Planning Act,” the sub-committee said. “However, the Act is under review and it could well be that simplified notices will soon be permissible.”