 Community Forums are fundamental to
the County Council's approach of getting citizen engagement in
shaping the places in which they live and work.Community Forums
are a part of what the County Council is calling “Localism” which
is about encouraging everyone who lives or works locally to offer
their ideas and solutions to local problems and to work together
to address them.
They will also allow a range of other public bodies to be engaged
at the same time to avoid overburdening local communities. This
prevents duplication and confusion for residents but it also
contributes to more effective solutions, as rarely can any one
organisation solve the more serious and/or longstanding problems
communities face such as transport, flooding, affordable housing
or improving employment prospects.
Community Forums will bring local issues from a wider area
together to provide the critical mass that is needed to
effectively influence change whilst at the same time ensuring the
characteristics of different parts of the county that exist below
area level are well reflected.
In addition the County Council has a duty to co-operate with
partner organisations to develop services and to 'inform, consult
and involve' local people in the work the Council undertakes.
Ultimately the Council will be judged on how well it is doing
this, the better the Council performs, the more money will come to
Northumberland.
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