As England undergoes significant local government reorganisation (LGR), the Irish model of Public Participation Networks offers timely and valuable insights.
With councils merging, boundaries shifting, and governance structures evolving, there is an urgent need to ensure that citizens remain meaningfully engaged in local decision-making. Indeed, the Government have specified stronger community engagement and neighbourhood empowerment as a key criteria against which LGR proposals will be evaluated. As a result, proposals for ‘neighbourhood area committees' or other such structures are springing up.
