Councils must establish Citizen’s Panels in order to devise proposals - local people's ideas and improvements to make a community more sustainable - to take forward to Government.
This is another way to show that the Act is not just about more meaningless consultation - YOU contribute and decide what you want to see change along with the rest of your community.
Here are easy steps to making sure your proposal is accepted:
(Adapted from and acknowledgement to LocalWorks)
Why bother? Isn’t this another useless consultation?
LocalWorks answer this question with a resounding 'NO'!
The Sustainable Communities Act is not another consultation! It is about a wholly new way of decision-making: co-operation. Councils have a legal duty to ‘try to reach agreement’ with the panels about your ideas.
Note those words – ‘try to reach agreement’: this is NOT consultation in which all decisions are made at the centre: instead councils have a legal duty to co-operate with panels of local people in deciding which suggestions to make to the Secretary of State as to how s/he can help reverse community decline. These have to be considered, and whether they are approved or rejected it is in agreement with the selector.
What next?
Go on to take the next steps.
Go back to the main SCA page.