Issue - meetings

A report is attached on Consultation, Community Engagement and Communications.

The Cabinet Member for Economic Community Regeneration – Councillor Paul Myers introduced the report.

Panel members asked the following questions and made the following points:

Councillor Turner asked about Foxhill community researchers, the Cabinet Member explained that they had had training in community engagement. He underlined the importance of establishing a relationship with residents and building trust. He explained that there had been central Government funding for the community researchers in Foxhill but that this may not be available for other projects.

Councillor Samuel mentioned the comments from the workshops (appended to the report) and how they showed low levels of trust in what the Council is doing and a lack of understanding on when the Council are due to consult or not. He stated that suggestions were welcome and that this was a big task for the next administration. He stated that it was important not to use the ‘usual suspects’. Councillor Myers stated that he was not suggesting a citizens panel, it would be independent people to give feedback to officers.

Councillor Anketell Jones stated that this sounds worthwhile and a charter would give the residents confidence but care should be taken to not put too much bureaucracy into a role that ward councillors would usually carry out. Councillor Myers explained that it would be like the Parish Charter in that we would always try to work within the spirit of the Charter rather than it being overly bureaucratic. There is a cost of conflict in our community and it would be amazing to work out solutions together.

Councillor Bull stated that he welcomed this as a potentially innovative and positive way forward.

This report updates the Cabinet on work undertaken with members of our Connecting Communities Forums on Consultation, Community Engagement and Communications. The report sets out the learning from recent consultation processes, ideas for building on good practice and suggested new approaches. The report also sets out the outcome of a detailed engagement process on this work so far and proposes next steps.

Councillor Rob Appleyard made an ad-hoc statement by welcoming the report though he felt that the Council would need to set up a mechanism that captures future consultations.

Councillor Eleanor Jackson made an ad-hoc statement also welcoming the report and said that the content of the brochures, leaflets, etc. would need to be more user friendly in terms of the font size/type and colours used in the background.

Councillor Shaun McGall also welcomed the report and added that democratic deficit would need to be addressed, in particular in Bath where there were no Parish Councils.

Councillor Paul Myers introduced the report by saying that the Cabinet was asked to note the report which would be presented to the CTE PDS Panel for review.  The Bath City Forum in 2018 have raised, what they felt were, a number of key learning points from some of the complex consultations that have taken place in recent years, including the East of Bath Park and Ride, Libraries and Air Quality.  It was considered that there were some useful lessons to be learnt from these which were considered when developing the Air Quality consultation process which received what is believed to be a record number of responses.  Following this issue being raised at the Bath City Forum, all the other Forums, Somer Valley, Chew Valley, Keynsham, Cam Valley and BathAvon North were asked for their views on how best to work together to improve the process of engagement and consultation in our area.  As a result a working group was established consisting of four Members of the Bath City Forum and two from each of the others.

Councillor Myers also said that joint workshop took place on 26th of January 2019 with ten of the seventeen members of the working group present. The workshop was run by the Cabinet Member for Economic and Community Regeneration supported by Officers from Partnerships and Corporate Services.  The outcomes of the workshop have been presented in the report.

Councillor Paul Myers moved the recommendations.

Councillor Karen Warrington seconded the motion by welcoming the report and adding that the Council have improved in terms of the consultation and engagement.

RESOLVED (unanimously) that the Cabinet agreed to:

2.1  Note the work of the area’s Local Area Forums in engaging with local residents, parish councils, town councils and the community and voluntary sector.

2.2  Thank the Bath City Forum and the Consultation Working Group, drawn from representatives of the Forums, ALCA and the 3SG, for their work to date on further developing our framework for Consultation, Community Engagement and Communications.

2.3  Requests the CTE PDS Panel to consider in more detail the outcomes of the groups findings, attached in Appendix 1 and detailed in the report under 5.12, and to advise the Council’s Cabinet on how best to develop further this work and incorporate it into the Council’s policy and practices.