Community engagement specialist, Bang the Table, has announced that it will provide online engagement tools to councils across Victoria and New South Wales.

New contracts have been signed with Auburn City Council, Bankstown City Council, Blue Mountains City Council, Yarra Ranges Shire Council and the City of Yarra.

Bang the Table will provide the councils with the technology to facilitate a range of community engagement projects such as local arts planning, community safety assessment and land use planning.

“Increasingly, local councils are seeing that not only do online engagement tools have the power to reach a vast number of people quickly but they are also cost effective to deploy,” Bang The Table director Matthew Crozier said.

“Councils are at the coalface of delivering local services and so are highly effective in allowing the community to have input into decision making around subjects like rate rises, community planning, cycling strategies and planning issues and other community initiatives have been very popular.”

Val Schaefer from Greater Taree City Council, who use Bang the Table’s Engagement HQ, said the council wanted to provide the community with another avenue of community engagement in an online environment to ensure that the public play a significant role in determining the community’s future.

“It has been terrific to see the amount of discussion and engagement we get online. As a council we are committed to strengthening our community engagement and involving the community in decisions that affect them."