Your chance to be heard at Council this year.Most councils are inviting feedback now.
Every year councils invite the public to give feedback on their draft annual plan or the draft of their ten year plan depending on what they are doing that year. Feedback can be on any topic and there is usually a report in the local newspaper about which topics were submitted on. Fluoride Free New Zealand has been doing this since 2009 and we now ask every concerned citizen to do the same.
This is a reasonably simple and important piece of action people can take. Feedback can be in the form of an email and can be as long or as short as you like with as many attachments as you like (e.g.Why Fluoridation Should be Ended in New Zealand by Dr Paul Connett). You can find other information to include at www.fluoridefree.org.nz. The main thing is that it says you are opposed to fluoridation and would like the council to stop.
The Draft Annual Plan process was the catalyst to having fluoridation stopped in Taumarunui and New Plymouth in 2011, Waipukurau in 2012, Hamilton in 2013 and for Kapiti Coast District Council and Palmerston North City council deciding to include fluoridation as an item in the Draft Annual Plan last year. Even though Hamilton ended up restarting fluoridation and Kapiti and Palmerston North decided not to stop at this time, having the issue discussed on the plan resulted in a huge amount of public interest and awareness..
You don’t have to live in the area to put in a submission. At some councils, the councillors only receive a summary of the submissions unless the submitter is appearing in person, then they get the whole submission that was sent in. Therefore, it is really helpful to take the opportunity to speak to your submission as not only do you get that extra five minutes, it also means the councillors will have received your submission in its entirety.
Below are the Councils that have fluoridation, plus a few unfluoridated places where we know there is effort to start it, with the dates that submissions will be accepted, the email address to send your submission to or website page where it can be lodged online and the date/dates the submissions will be heard (this will be updated as the information comes to hand).
If you send an email please put “Submission to Draft Annual/Long Term Plan” in subject line to ensure it is in included and copy so we can coordinate speaking time if lots of people choose to speak. Thanks.
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