If you don’t do it, someone else will

Here’s more proof.

Birmingham City Council are asking for people’s views on their ‘Big City Plan’. They have even created a website to help people to do so.

I asked Jon Bounds, Birmingham blogger extraordinaire, what was wrong with the Council’s approach. He answered:

Not so much “wrong” per-se as we thought helping discussion (rather than just comment) would generate understanding & ideas.

So Jon and others did something to generate that understanding and those ideas. They’ve translated the consultation document out of local government regenero-speak and into something approaching normal English. They’ve also made the thing properly commentable enabling people to have discussions about their city and what should happen to it.

They’ve called it Big City Plan Talk, and it’s a lovely thing. Let’s hope that Birmingham City Council take note and engage with these people with an obvious love for their city.

Readers working within local government: how could you make the most of the civic energy in your area, to work with residents to create something really worthwhile?

Everyone else: What’s going on in your local area that you could take a bit of time out to help out with, or improve?