Lead Partner: Rural Community Network (Northern Ireland)
Description
As of September 2008 the legislative framework for Community Planning within Northern Ireland has still to emerge. There have been positive moves in that the Review of Public Administration has delivered its final recommendations with regard to the structure and function of local government within Northern Ireland and these recommendations have been approved by the local Assembly. The result is that Northern Ireland’s existing 26 District Councils will be merged to provide a total of 11 Super Councils which will come into existence in 2011. More importantly these new structures will also have a Community Planning function, something which was still up for debate at the start of this year.
The time delay in terms of when Community Planning will be rolled out, namely 2011, has afforded RCN the opportunity to actively develop and explore models that would be directly transferable to the Community Planning process. Key pieces of work completed within the last 8 months that RCN is actively promoting to policy makers, elected representatives and communities with this regard include:
Migrant work
RCN has identified a key challenge but perhaps more accurately an important opportunity, namely that of rural Northern Ireland’s increasingly diverse population. At the core of this work was creating spaces for integration and for developing amongst both the indigenous and migrant population the skills and capacity required to take the first tentative steps in reaching out to the other. If Community Planning is to be a wholly inclusive space that engages all of the community, the lessons learned in this work have provided direct guidance and food for thought for policy makers and local government.
Environmental Planning – RIPPLE project
The Rivers Involving People, Places and Leading by Example (RIPPLE) project has seen RCN working in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund and against the context of the Water Framework Directive to encourage local people living along the Ballinderry river to reconnect with their river and act as a community to preserve and celebrate the heritage of the Ballinderry. What has clearly emerged with obvious application to Community Planning is the extra effort and investment required to make things happen and ensure diverse participation.
Contact Details
Mark AllenRCN (NI)38a Oldtown Street
Cookstown
Co Tyrone BT80 8EF Tel: 028 8676 6670 Email: mark@ruralcommunitynetwork.org
Website: http://www.ruralcommunitynetwork.org