Your Voice Matters: Join Us in Shaping Brighton & Hove's Future

We are inviting all our residents to actively engage in the way we make decisions about the future of the city. Your input will be invaluable as we work together to deliver our vision to be a council that listens to its communities and delivers positive results for the city.

What are we asking?

We want to hear from you about ways that could enable you to play a bigger part in the work of the council. Your responses will inform recommendations to Full Council on changes to the public participation rules in the Council’s Constitution. Your input is invaluable in shaping the future of our city's governance.

CONSULTATION QUESTION 1:

Under the new governance system, what do you think are the best ways to include local people in the Council’s formal decision-making processes?

Current Arrangements

Under our current system, residents are able to:

· Ask a public question at full Council or committee meetings

· Present a deputation at full Council or committee meetings

· Present petitions at full Council or committee meetings

Proposed Arrangements

Under the new system, residents will be able to

· Ask a public question at full Council or Cabinet meetings

· Present a petition at full Council meetings

· Ask public questions at Overview & Scrutiny committee meetings

Overview & Scrutiny committees can also set up task & finish groups. These groups will do deep dives into specific issues, where local people can get also involved – for example, to suggest topics, give evidence, or sit as panel members.

CONSULTATION QUESTION 2:

In addition to the above, how else could we increase engagement with local people and reduce barriers to participation?

We want to think about the best way to engage residents outside of our formal governance processes. The Council has legal duties to engage communities on specific initiatives, or when developing major plans and policies, such as the Housing Strategy or the Local Transport Plan. We will continue to undertake this engagement and consultation activity. However, we also want to explore other ways of increasing public participation. Below are ideas for different types of engagement activities. We’d like to know if these concepts interest you, or if you have different ideas.

· Question Time – meetings where local people can meet and ask cabinet members and other city leaders questions on a range of issues

· Citizens Assembly – a representative panel of local people, formed to look in-depth at a single issue and to make recommendations

· Deliberative Forums – structured events designed to facilitate informed and inclusive discussions among participants on complex or controversial issues. These forums often involve presentations, small-group discussions, and deliberative processes aimed at reaching consensus or understanding

· Digital engagement – our new engagement platform Your Voice Brighton & Hove can support online discussion forums, idea generation, polls and surveys, interactive mapping, and participatory budgeting to inform council decision making

· In person engagement events – to bring local people, councillors, council officers and city partners together to examine difficult to solve city challenges, hear a wide range of divergent views, and codesign solutions.  

CONSULTATION QUESTION 3:

Do you have any other comments you would like us to consider as we design our engagement activity to ensure our work is accessible to all?