Participation Strategy 2022-27

Participation Strategy 2022-27

Why Does Pembrokeshire County Council Need a Participation Strategy?

The Local Government & Elections Act (Wales) 2021 sets out that the Councils have a duty to encourage participation in local government:

 

• Duty to encourage local people to participate in decision-making by principal councils

(1)  A principal council must encourage local people to participate in the making of decisions by the council (including the making of decisions in partnership or in conjunction with any other person)*

(2)  In subsection (1), a reference to the making of decisions includes a reference to the making of decisions by a person in relation to the exercise of a function delegated to that person by a principal council

 

• Strategy on encouraging participation

(1)  A principal council must prepare and publish a strategy (“a public participation strategy”) specifying how it proposes to comply with the duty above.

(2)  A public participation strategy must, in particular, address—

(a) ways of promoting awareness among local people of the principal council’s functions;

(b) ways of promoting awareness among local people of how to become a member of the principal council, and what membership entails;

(c) ways of facilitating access for local people to information about decisions made, or to be made, by the principal council;

(d) ways of promoting and facilitating processes by which local people may make representations to the principal council about a decision before, and after, it is made;

(e) arrangements made, or to be made, for the purpose of the council’s duty in section 62 of the 2011 Measure (bringing views of the public to attention of overview and scrutiny committees);

(f) ways of promoting awareness among members of the principal council of the benefits of using social media to communicate with local people