Susan Rodaway and Michael Hancock shared practical models for reshaping and democratising local government.
The Neighbourhood Democracy Movement brought together community activists to listen to presentations by Susan Rodaway and Michael Hancock in order to explore how to reform local government in practice.
Susan Rodaway is a Community Councillor at Pennard in Wales. She believes democracy should happen from the grassroots up not the top level down and that everyone in the community should have the opportunity to have their say on matters that are important to them, or that directly affect them. Susan is also Operations Director at VocalEyes who offer organisations licensed access to a digital platform that’s designed to help communities launch projects that tackle today’s big challenges and make change happen. The platform has enabled community members to both influence and manage budgets and the methodology has changed the profile of the community council, lowering the average age of a community councillor and shifting the gender balance.
Michael Hancock of Community Alliances has developed a new model for Neighbourhood Councils. He lives in Dorset and has been involved in Social Enterprises since 2009 and has stood as an independent councillor in partnership with Flatpack Democracy. In 2018 he received a grant to deliver Soup Crowdfunding events in his local town. He became a trustee of Sustainable Dorset and of Poole Community Exchange. One of the pitchers at Poole Soup introduced him to Flatpack Democracy and together they founded Alliance for Local Living a political party to change local politics as we know it.
To find out more about the Neighbourhood Democracy Movement please visit: https://neighbourhooddemocracy.org
The webinar was recorded on 12th July 2021.
Neighbourhood Democracy, politics, England, Webinar
