In most cases, the people responsible for maintaining and improving walking and moving infrastructure—paths, seating, play and exercise equipment and signage—are your local council.
You can find your local lutruwita/Tasmanian council by referring to this list of councils or this map.
Here are some ways to bring needed walking and moving improvements to the attention of your local council:
Email Council
Raise issues with your local council by sharing your town report and taking photos of the problem areas. Email your council using the generic email address found at the bottom of the page here.
Emailling and Inviting Councillors to Meetings
Councillors are responsible for reviewing, debating, and making decisions about issues that are brought before their council.
When contacting a councillor you could share your town report and ask them to raise your walkability issue as a ‘Notice of Motion (NOM)’ in their next council meeting. This will allow all councillors to discuss and make decisions on the issue.
You could also invite councillors to attend a community meeting or request to meet with them directly. You can usually find a list of councillors on your local council’s website.
Join Council Meetings
Members of the community can ask questions in the first 15 minutes of each council meeting. This form of action will allow the councillors to directly hear about walking and moving issues affecting you and your community.
To make sure you can ask your question you will need to lodge your question in writing before the meeting. This process is called ‘put on notice’. Your local council will be able to provide you with information on how to submit questions.
You can also see if your council has a planning group or something similar and attend meetings of that group. Or you could get in contact with people who are a part of the group.
Start a Petition
A petition is a good way to show council officers and members the scale of community support for improving walkability.