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Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Consultation in Plain English with a place to talk- A model from Brum

Birmimgham city council have a Big City Plan but their portal for consultation shares many characteristics with Haringey's. As local blogger Parboo puts it, "the plan is really quite hard to penetrate and the feedback mechanisms do not encourage a deepening of understanding or indeed a conversation."
Sound familiar?
Brum's active online community have decided to do something about it.

They have rewritten the plan in plain English and placed the new text next to the original, they provide a place to comment and see other people's comment and develop the conversation. It's called Big City Talk and its a pretty impressive piece of work.

I would also suggest that it is a great model for consultation and something from which we in Harringay and Haringey can learn.

Tags for Forum Posts: Big city talk, consultation, local ideas, plain English

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Concerns about the impenetrable nature of Haringey's consultation were raised
here
Plain English!

Ah! What a blessing to see and hear such words.

I received our Safer Neighbourhood Ward constitution last week. It was not easy to understand.

I asked the chair person to have it rewritten it in plain english. He said NO! ?

Non Lawyers, non politicians and ordinary citizens deserve Plain English.

Bureaucrats and politicians seem to like verbose phrases. Why?

Come Out please and speak plainly ... please. Transparency is 'todays' theme.

chico pachéco
Chico I couldn't agree more. It sometimes seems they want to keep people away from the process of local democracy by unnecessary obscure words and phrases and enormous documents that ensure that most people don't get beyond the executive summary.
I think the Brum model is a great idea but it has to be said it is unofficial, done by volunteers and it is uncertain whether the council will 'recognise' it as official feedback.
It is no use spending money on fancy consultation portals in a dozen langs if when you get to the document it is impossible to make sense of.
simple words

transparency

discovers the truth

belays dishonesty

promoted by Obama

chico
Liz, for some reason I missed this last year. As you said, it's an impressive piece of work.

I wonder how effective it was in increasing the level of consultation. In particular did it encourage ideas and comments from people who don't usually contribute to such consultations? Has anyone been in touch with the Birmingham Bloggers group?

It would also be useful to know what Birmingham's planners and councillors thought of it. In one way the Big City Plan Talk is very critical - at least by implication - of the official documents with their high content of blather and planning jargon. On the other hand, if Birmingham's politicians and council officers are open-minded and genuinely welcome public engagement, they ought to be excited by the possibilities opened-up. And have thought seriously - or even acted! - to do something like this themselves.
Thanks for reminding me of this.

Having a dig around the site shows that there were 275 comments sent to the council for inclusion. I don't know how this would compare to the number of people commenting on the Haringey Plan or even the London Plan.

A couple of the people behind the project are friends of HOL, Nicky Getgood and Nick Booth. You should be able to find them in member search, if you wanted to get in touch.
Thanks Liz. I will get in touch with Nicky and Nick when I have a bit of time spare.

I've just suggested to Cllr John Bevan that he has a look at this website as a possible model for a public discussion on the Winter Service Plan. This was intended to learn wider lessons and improve our services after the ice and snow.

I exchanged emails with John Bevan at the beginning of February and suggested that residents should be involved as early as possible. I'd hoped this could be a genuine crowd-sourcing and think-tank of new ideas, criticisms and practical suggestions.

I can't see a more recent reply from John or the council officers. Though we were away last week and it may be somewhere in my email mountain. Let's hope we don't get a repeat of London's Snowday on 6 April 2008, before Haringey is ready!

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