Over the past three weeks the council has hosted at least two community meetings which have only been open to invited residents and groups.

The events have not been advertised on the council’s website, or in its calendar of events.

On 10 August council administrator Meredith Sussex convened a working group to brainstorm ideas for Sunshine’s 150th anniversary celebrations.

Twenty-three invitations were sent out to a range of community groups including the Sunshine Historical Society, Sunshine Residents and Ratepayers Association, Sunshine Traders Association and Victoria University.

Last Tuesday the council held another community consultation over plans to revitalise Sunshine’s Town Centre.

This meeting was also invitation only.

Stephen Sully, the council’s City Development Manager said the session was independently facilitated and was attended by representatives from local schools, youth organisations, community groups, police, Victoria University and businesses.

Mr Sully said the session was designed to help the council work with the community to achieve positive outcomes for the Sunshine Town Centre.

“The ideas and initiatives identified at the engagement sessions will be used to inform the development of an overall vision and positioning statement for the centre.”

SunRRA president Darlene Reilly said consultations should be open to the whole community.

“I’m concerned by these limited, targeted consultations,” Ms Reilly said.

“Everyone in the community has a right to be involved in these discussions and I think it’s quite alarming this trend towards invitation only consultations.”

But Brimbank Council CEO Nick Foa said the invitation only events were not the only type of consultations held by the council.

“While some may take form of workshops and thus be invitation only, a number of them will be advertised to the public and widely accessible such as through surveys or through our website,” Mr Foa said.

“This will allow the whole community to participate and contribute ideas to the project.”