The Centre’s ambition is to help local authorities improve two-way engagement with communities by providing best practice advice, support and practical solutions, focusing on the use of technology.
ICELE has been in development since early this year and has been designed to take forward the work of the eDemocracy National Project, as well as create new solutions to drive up eParticipation rates. Lichfield District Council will support the development of ICELE as the responsible authority for the Centre.
Cllr Matthew Ellis, Chairman of ICELE, commented: “Democracy is much bigger than Party Politics. ICELE will work with all Parties to help ensure local people are well informed and have a real voice in local decision making. Democratic participation is steadily declining, yet opportunities to involve local people in local decision making, are growing every day. From text voting, to online consultations, we need to harness new technologies to make it easy for people across the country to get involved in the democratic process.”
Andrew Pinder, former e-Envoy to the UK Government and President of ICELE, said: “Technology plays a vital role in connecting local people to local government and ICELE’s key role will be helping local authorities to increase eParticipation rates and reinvigorate the local democratic process.”
Some of the products from the eDemocracy National Projects, together with discussions and forums on the issues that local authorities face in their work to engage their local communities through eDemocracy and eParticipation, will be discussed at the forthcoming Annual e-Participation Symposium in July 2006. To find out more about the Symposium visit www.eparticipationsymposium.org.
Quelle/Source: Lichfield District Council, 24.07.2006
