- 12 Local Networks across the county drive community participation, support community-led projects and encourage engagement
- Durham County Council’s Cabinet will be asked to approve changes to these Local Networks to bring a new structure designed to drive community action.
- The changes will form the basis for more effective co-ordination and delivery of council and partner activity and ensure that Local Network funding is spent on genuine local priorities.
- This structure will include a new Local Network Elected Member Board, a Local Network Stakeholder Panel and regular Local Network Community Forums.
Councillors will be asked to agree changes to a council scheme that brings together residents, councillors, businesses and partner organisations to improve community life across County Durham.
From the start of April, changes to Durham County Council’s Local Networks will aim to reinvigorate the relationship between community leadership and the local authority. The council’s Local Networks consist of 12 areas across the county that drive community participation and support community-led projects, encouraging engagement and bringing improvements to these areas.
The key function of these networks is the establishment of new Local Network Action Plans (LNAPs), which will look to guide wider locality working and form the basis for more effective co-ordination and delivery of council and partnership activity, as well as how Local Network funding is spent.
Next week, the local authority’s Cabinet will be asked to agree on a new structure for the networks, which will include a new Local Network Elected Member Board, a Local Network Stakeholder Panel and regular Local Network Community Forums. The new approach aims to provide a structure for local collaboration between partners, elected members and residents.
Stakeholder Panels would work alongside Local Network Community Forums and would consist of representatives from core stakeholders including police, fire, housing, health, town and parish councils, businesses and their local place based representative bodies, skills providers, and economic development partners. Consideration would also be given to how the wider Voluntary Community Sector (VCS) is involved at the Stakeholder Panel level.
These panels would be an information sharing network that would give shape to, and provide oversight of, the development of the LNAPs while functioning as an advisory panel to the Local Network Elected Member Board.
Finally, community engagement would have greater emphasis with a refreshed engagement programme through the Local Network Community Forums.
These forums would be open to all who live, work or study in a Local Network area to attend and will be a consultative and conversational forum to gather key information to co-produce LNAPs. The council aims to increase representation and involvement from a greater proportion of County Durham and reach deeper into communities.
Cllr Nicola Lyons, Durham County Council Cabinet member for communities and civic resilience, said: “These changes to our Local Networks would strengthen place-based working and community leadership and place county councillors at the heart of strategic and financial decision-making while strengthening shared development, understanding and delivery of local priorities.
“These changes would ensure continued and deeper engagement with communities, provide more clarity for members and partners in terms of their role and influence, and support delivery of inclusive growth and improved outcomes for residents across County Durham.”
The council has proposed that the Local Network Elected Member Board and the Stakeholder Panel will each elect a chair and vice chair.
Meanwhile, changes to two of the Local Network geographies would ensure county councillor representation and populations are more evenly apportioned in these areas.
The alteration would see the electoral wards of Crook and Willington and Hunwick moving from the former Crook, Mid-Durham and Willington Local Network to the Weardale Local Network.
The new Local Network Elected Member Board would be created from the council’s desire to provide structure and improved direction for work taking place in locality areas across the county. It would also mean that Local Networks would be better connected to strategic decision-making within the council to better serve residents and achieve greater results for growth.
The council’s Cabinet will discuss the proposed changes to the Local Networks when it meets on Wednesday 18 March.
