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Okay, so calling them “community kitties” maybe does the idea less than justice. But, had Hazel Blears used the term “participatory budgeting”, who’d have bothered to look twice at these proposals? The question is Will they work? and do they offer anything beyond the existing myriad of public engagement methods? There are plenty of doubters. […]

If you work in the general field of public participation, chances are that your organisation has issued some form of Guidelines to help you do your job. They may not be called Guidelines, and may take the style of a Framework, a Policy document or even a Code of Practice, but they all share the

Our thoughts this week are undoubtedly with tens of thousands of residents in Gloucestershire and elsewhere, who, as this topic is being written are flooded out, without drinking water, and maybe without electricity. A month ago it was Hull and Sheffield; a few years ago it was York and Carlisle. So how much discussion has

In England, the Local Government Minister has thrown a substantial grenade towards a large number of Councils by announcing nine successful bids for Unitary status, and thereby sealing the fate of over 30 District Councils. The creation of new Unitary Authorities for Cornwall, Durham, Northumberland, Shropshire, Wiltshire, Ipswich and Exeter will delight many who see

One of the biggest trends in consultation is away from the big fat document and towards participative events. These come in different shapes and sizes and sport a variety of titles from consultation seminars or workshops to full-blown Stakeholder Conferences. Most, if not all these, will involve a participative element or breakout session. Unfortunately these

Major re-generation projects these days are always the subject of consultation, and the same goes for less comprehensive urban re-development. Other changes to our communities are also supposed to be preceded by public debate; this covers proposed alterations to policing, schools, health centres or hospitals. So, assiduous residents or local representative organisations who have their

Last Friday was the closing date for the consultation held on “Effective consultation” – or how the Government itself, and its agencies should manage their consultations. The debate has covered many important aspects. Should the current Code of Practice be replaced by something more flexible? What kind of monitoring should take place? Should all consultations

We’re at a curious point in the adoption of new technology for public or stakeholder participation. Many organisations have intelligently dabbled; most can now boast a passable attempt to list their consultations on their websites and an increasing number offer us the chance to contribute our comments online. But compared to the range of clever

Were all consultations simple Yes/No votes, life would probably be simpler. Dumbed-down, maybe; but without doubt simpler! In reality, however, policy-making at all levels is complex and there are shades of opinion or nuances of approach which are seldom picked up when we opt for over-simplistic dialogues. The truth is that consultees often want to