Online Community Standards
We welcome your comments and encourage open discussion on our social media pages. Please remember to be polite and respectful to other users and council staff responding to your comments and questions.
While our pages are monitored, we do not log service requests based on comments. If you want the council to fix or get something done, please use the Snap, Send, Solve app, send us a private message, or call our customer services team on (03) 307 7700.
The best way to provide feedback on a Council proposal or consultation topic is through our dedicated public engagement site at itsourplace.nz
To ensure our online spaces provide a welcoming environment for constructive conversation between Council and our community, we ask that you respect the following guidelines.
- Keep it civil - There's no need to agree with Council but be polite and constructive with your comments. Avoid personal attacks against staff and other users, and don’t post content that could be considered harmful, racist, discriminatory, offensive or inappropriate. Any comment that contains swearing or offensive language will automatically be hidden.
- Stay on topic – Make sure that your message is relevant to the post you’re commenting on, or to services or projects that Council provides. Don’t post content that contains misinformation, disinformation or unapproved third-party links.
- Keep it legal – Don’t advocate or encourage people to break the law or Council bylaws. Avoid posting private or confidential information about elected members, staff or other users. Please also ensure that your content doesn’t violate the copyright or trademarks of others.
- Don’t spam – Spam, scams, phishing attempts and third-party advertising will be promptly removed, and the responsible account will be blocked. Our definition of spam includes the repetitive posting of a comment or link, across one or more posts.
- No electioneering – Our social media channels must not be used for electioneering purposes. Any post, whether positive or negative, related to a person's nomination, intention to run for Council or election campaign, will be removed.
We often use Te Reo Māori alongside English in our posts.
Common kupu (words) you’ll see include:
- Te Whare Whakatere (the name of our civic centre and library building)
- Hakatere/Whakatere (the Ashburton District),
- Common greetings such as kia ora and mōrena.
If don't know the meaning of a word, you can find the definition at maoridictionary.co.nz
We reserve the right to hide or delete comments and/or block users that fail to meet our community standards.
In rare instances, when too many comments fail to meet our community standards or are likely to spread misinformation, we reserve the right to turn off commenting.
All communication with the council over social media channels is subject to the Public Records Act 2005 and is considered to be local authority records (as defined in the Act). All responses, posts, comments and other activity on our page (including deleted and hidden content) is collected and retained for as long as is required by our approved records disposal schedule.
The Local Government Official Information Act process can be used to access our record of social media posts and responses.
When asking for feedback on a Council proposal or consultation topic, we may also capture relevant social media comments and supply these to elected members as part of their decision making. That means your profile name and comment may form part of a council report which will become a public record on the Ashburton District Council website.
Find out more about our Privacy Policy.