How to involve the community?

At this weeks planning committee meeting of the Town Council, the matter of the London Road bridge came up for discussion. I took the opportunity to comment on the fact that very few people in the town knew that the bridge was going to be removed. As a councillor, I get to hear about all sorts of things planned to happen - e.g. planning application proposals, and generally I am kept informed about matters of interest in the town. As a community worker, my instincts are to involve, engage and inform people. But yet with my town council hat, I have no capacity or resouces to share this information with the wider public and it is thoroughly frustrating. This blog is one avenue I use to share information, the other main one is facebook - I find it incredibly useful for informing people about matters which may be of interest or canvassing views on a given subject. For example, I think around 20 people used it to contact me initially asking what was happening with the bridge, and then to pass comment on what they thought of the idea. At the meeting on Wednesday, I explained that councils - County, District and Town and other agencies, such as the police, needed to put more effort into involving communities, and using a variety of methods to do so. Otherwise, can we really wonder why apathy rules in so many quarters? I would welcome any views from readers on methods of sharing information.