A key strap line for our e-democracy programme – inform people and encourage them to get involved
The consultation strategy led to the development of Consultation Finder and from there is seemed sensible to try other approaches such as online surveys and quick polls. E-petitions were introduced in 2004, closely followed by our original e-panel, Ask Bristol Over the last few years this has evolved with more bottom-up engagement through neighbourhood forums plus through improved use of multimedia Bristol was also the first place in the country to introduce free IT in libraries through the People’s network We’re currently encouraging the development of hyper local sites to support the NP programme
We group all the tools together on the council’s website also accessible via www.askbristol.com All set to change with the council’s new website (powered by Drupal) which will put engagement to the fore
All the council’s consultations in one place on the web. Powered by local company Delib. Making it easy to find consultations.
Early engagement on possible redesign of Bristol City Centre using Wordpress. An example of a public conversation.
Final thoughts are that e-democracy is not about making a transaction Spending money on buying tools help but it’s more about people Works best if can invest time and effort to build an ongoing relationship Making sure that feedback and responses are given