``If we see some new faces at meetings, they are most often there to have a burning issue happening in their immediate neighbourhood addressed and once that's fixed we never see them again.

``We need to hear from those other people that aren't coming forward, but it's tough to find a way to reach them, because they don't seem to want to be involved, or else they would be coming to us.

``I've suggested that we include a detailed feedback form with the rate notifications that we send out, that may give us some additional information about what people are thinking and they will definitely notice it if it's with the rates.''

Well, I support the idea of a form, council could get a lot of useful information that way, but it won't get people to maintain a sustained involvement with council.

While she's in Turkey this week, to attend the Anzac Day service at Anzac Cove, Liverpool Mayor Wendy Waller commented on this issue a few weeks back.

``If people have a problem they have to come to us,'' Ms Waller said.

``We've got a lot of issues we're dealing with, so we can't spend our time chasing people.

``If residents aren't coming to us with any issues, that says to me that nothing is going wrong for them, that they're happy with everything.

``We'd love to hear from more people, we want as many people as possible to come to us and tell us what issues they're facing and if they're under council control we'd be happy to try to solve them.''

As Cr Harle said, people that are usually inactive in the community, develop a very loud voice when something affects them directly. And it's not surprising,

I mean after all, we're always most concerned about what affects us directly, it's human nature. And of course, if it hits the hip pocket nerve it always hurts the most.

So residents do contact newspapers and councillors if there is a problem down the street or as now, if the rates could be going up, but what if it's something big that has the potential to affect the whole area? There are usually very few locals speaking out against it. It's always the small faithful group that are always across all the issues.

This is where the mayor and councillors have a role to play, they need to try to get out into the community more and interact with people directly, ask them what their problems are. Or set up more opportunities for people to speak to them, make themselves more accessible to locals, who may feel reluctant to approach council.

Councillors are doing a good job of listening to community concerns as it is, they are often available for meetings and phone calls. But I think they need to do more to reach those people that are too often left behind, because they don't know how to step up and be heard. There is no quick solution to get to these people.

But I think if councillors set up community meetings where the public was given the opportunity to walk down the street to their local community centre and meet their councillors they would jump at it. And they would feel a lot more comfortable coming to them with problems from then on and that would open up the avenues of communication for a long time to come.

Long-term contact of this paper and local activist Roy Carter, of Wattle Grove, said to me a few months ago: ``people don't care about anything unless it's happening right outside their front door.''

``Once it's something that really affects them directly, they're jumping up and down and contacting MPs and councillors and anyone else that will listen, but when it's a serious ongoing issue they're not fussed,'' Mr Carter said.

Mr Carter's primary concern for two years now has been the impending construction of an immense inter-modal freight terminal on the site of the School of Military Engineering in Moorebank. He has found an enormous amount of information about the Federal Government's plans to construct the site, and Stockland's plans to construct a support site on a block of land across the road, that they purchased two years ago. He has spoken to countless MPs, government officials, councillors and numerous other people about the issue and been in almost constant contact with our paper about it as well.

But, as he says, no one else seems to be interested.

``I never get any emails.

``I send a lot of correspondence around, but no one cares, no one ever responds.

``And this is the issue that will affect Liverpool the most for many years to come.

``The construction of this terminal will bring a huge amount of trucks, pollution, traffic congestion and potentially hazardous chemicals into Liverpool.

``And it will make the suburbs surrounding the site practically unliveable, but no one cares.

``It's very frustrating.''

In my time covering this story I have done several street polls to see if anyone even knows that the project is in the works. And surprise, surprise they don't. Almost everyone I had spoken to hadn't heard about it. Now, I know it's not because of a lack of coverage, because our paper has been covering the issue for almost two years now and there have been many front pages awarded to it. It must be because like so much else, they don't think it will affect them, so they're not interested.

But once you tell people a bit about the situation and ask them their view, they do have opinions on it. So I don't accept that people in Liverpool are apathetic about the area in any way, as many argue, they are just lacking in information.

Now that we have an elected council, I think they need to work towards creating stronger bonds with the community and getting out and speaking to community members more often. Setting up meet and greet sessions would be a great way to start.