Council engagement with the local community

I have just emailed the two councillors and the leader of the council also, really looking forward to their response. I said:

Dear Nigel,

I'm really interested in the online engagement of elected members and council officers with the residents of North Somerset, with a particular interest in Weston-super-Mare Central. I have been reading research which can be found on the following website http://networkedneighbourhoods.com/. The research focuses on three well-established community forums using information from both resident users of the site, elected members and council officers (both in the local area where the sites are based and nationally) and has found the benefits to be numerous. They include:

• The case study sites stimulate positive connections between residents, both in terms of encounters and exchange.
• Three quarters of respondents felt that participation on the local site had had a positive effect on whether or not people pull together to make improvements.
• Some 91 per cent of respondents agreed that through their site, people express pride in their area.
• 69 per cent felt that participation on the local site had strengthened their sense of belonging (to their neighbourhood)
• Overall, two thirds (68 per cent) of respondents felt a little more or much more able to influence decisions locally as a result of participation on their local site.
• One councillor, active online, noted that if a theme is discussed on the forum it helps him, in his relations with officers, in trying to get things done.
• It seems likely that local websites can both stimulate and reflect a latent demand for informal opportunities for collective involvement, very much on a dip-in dip-out basis.
• Twenty one per cent of respondents said that participation on their site had changed their attitude towards council officers for the better. Almost twice as many (42 per cent) said their attitude towards local councillors had changed for the better. (In those areas where people in an official role had been proactive in making themselves accessible and providing information, the figures were significantly enhanced, suggesting a correlation between their participation and improved perception of their role.)

These are just a few points that seemed relevent to highlight, you may be particularly interested in section 4 of the research, relations with councils - http://networkedneighbourhoods.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Online-Nhood-Networks-Section-4.pdf

I know you recently provided answers to questions posed by members of the weston-super-mum site, and this is exactly the kind of member involvement I believe needs to become commonplace. The other local citizen sites I am aware of are the Weston Mercury forum, Weston Mercury blogs and the Weston-super-Mare People site.

Could you please tell me how the Council feels about the involvement of members and officers in such sites? Is it promoted, or are there barriers in place?

I have looked at your website, and I know you also use facebook and twitter which is brilliant. Do others though? Are we far from councillors and officers actually engaging online with residents? Do they monitor local opinion displayed on these sites? If they do, excellent, but I really believe actually engaging is what will help the council reap the benefits described in the aforementioned research.

I hope you find the information interesting, and I look forward to hearing your views.

Kind Regards,

Holly Young

I have also just come across a Facebook profile of a councillor in Portsmouth who is engaging in exactly the kind of way I would love to see everywhere. Jim Fleming, thank you for leading by example!

Off my high horse and onwards to take my little one to a Christmas party now :)