CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT IN THE UPDATING OF STRATEGIC PLAN OF CITY OF HRADEC KRÁLOVÉ

- an example of methods and tools implemented by Agora CE

GERMANY POLAND

SLOVAKIA

AUSTRIA

PRAGUE

Description of the city:

• population of 100.000 inhabitants

• 120 km far from Prague

• center of the Region

HRADEC KRÁLOVÉ

Description of the issue:

• Former Strategic plan is based only on economical development without significant links to social and environmental areas

• The city decided to update Strategic Plan and build in principles of Sustainable Growth in new version of plan

Objectives of the project:

• to update Strategic Plan of the city

• to implement the principles of Sustainable Growth in the new version of the plan

• to inform citizens on Sustainable Growth as ground principle of the new plan

• to involve ordinary citizens in discussions on future of the town

• to establish new way of better communication between citizens and municipality

CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT IN THE UPDATING OF STRATEGIC PLAN OF CITY OF HRADEC KRÁLOVÉ

- an example of methods and tools implemented by Agora CE

Phases of the process:(note: following list of the phases represents only brief description of the process. Agora CE was responsible just for „red labeled“ activities)

• Analysis of recent development documents (with the respect to the principles of the Sustainable development)

• Medialization of the process and information about the Sustainable Growth

• Gathering the opinions of the public, opinion polls• Survey on business environment and NGO sector

• First public meeting

• Defining key areas of the development and establishing of the workgroups of experts

• Public discussion on future of the city

• Work on the new version of the Strategic Plan

• Second public meeting, presentation of the draft version

• Approval of the Strategic Plan by the Assembly

May (2003)- June

June - August

September -

October

June

November

December

January 2004

February-May

May

CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT IN THE UPDATING OF STRATEGIC PLAN OF CITY OF HRADEC KRÁLOVÉ

- an example of methods and tools implemented by Agora CE

Organizational structure and partners of the process:

CITY ASSEMBLY(37 members)

CITY COUNCIL(11 members)

STEERING COMMITTEE(app. 40 members)

WORK TEAM

EWG1 EWG2 EWG3 EWG4 EWG5 EWG6 EWG7 EWG8

WORKGROUPS OF EXPERTS

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facilitators and others

CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT IN THE UPDATING OF STRATEGIC PLAN OF CITY OF HRADEC KRÁLOVÉ

- an example of methods and tools implemented by Agora CE

Opinion poll:• Consists of two parts:

• Telephone interviews - councillors and town hall staff personally called the citizens to ask them about the future of the city and

other issues

• Questionnaire survey – questionnaires distributed to all households in town as part of the “Town hall magazine”. Citizens put filled-in

questionnaires in boxes placed on frequently visited places in the town

• Questionnaires available on-line – Everybody could download the form• Objectives of the poll:• to find out about the citizen‘s opinions on free time, sport and culture,

tidiness of the city and quality of environment, traffic, safety, public services, economic situation and development of town

• to motivate citizens to think and talk about future of the city• to inform citizens on the process • to activate and involve citizens in process

• Results:• 2189 respondents

• 235 phone interviews (response rate 75%)• 1904 filled-in questionnaires (return rate app. 5%) • 50 filled-in internet questionnaires

CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT IN THE UPDATING OF STRATEGIC PLAN OF CITY OF HRADEC KRÁLOVÉ

- an example of methods and tools implemented by Agora CE

First public meeting:• More than 200 citizens

• First part – Discussion on „hot issues“ of the city (cleanness, traffic, safety)

• Second part - Discussion on future of the time (selecting vision and defining key areas of

development)• Creative and open atmosphere

CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT IN THE UPDATING OF STRATEGIC PLAN OF CITY OF HRADEC KRÁLOVÉ

- an example of methods and tools implemented by Agora CE

Public discussion on future of the city:

• About 60 people • everybody chose 2 areas to discuss• within the discussion they analyzed present situation,

defined the future situation and ways how to reach it• evaluation of the discussion - average mark = 1.74

( 1= excellent, 5=very bad) • people appreciated the openness and willingness of

the municipality to discuss and find solutions together • citizens wanted to have in the future more debates

CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT IN THE UPDATING OF STRATEGIC PLAN OF CITY OF HRADEC KRÁLOVÉ

- an example of methods and tools implemented by Agora CE

Second public meeting:• App. 75 citizens• Aims of the meeting:

• to present new version of the Strategic plan• to discuss suggested vision, priorities and

measures• to collect comments of citizens• to present and discuss SEA

CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT IN THE UPDATING OF STRATEGIC PLAN OF CITY OF HRADEC KRÁLOVÉ

- an example of methods and tools implemented by Agora CE

Results:

• New version of the Strategic plan of the city has been approved by the Assembly.

• Every citizen of Hradec Králové had many chances to enter the process and influence the future of the city

• Database with over 80 contacts of active citizens was set up• Municipality is planning to involve residents into preparation of Action

plans (action plans are related to Strategic plan and will contain real projects and tangible actions for coming short period)

CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT IN THE UPDATING OF STRATEGIC PLAN OF CITY OF HRADEC KRÁLOVÉ

- an example of methods and tools implemented by Agora CE