Wednesday 16 February 2022

UPDATED: Brent's new website lacks direct link to local democracy and citizen engagement

 



The re-vamped Brent Council website is attractive and the link to services useful but there is a missing link that is important for active citizens who want to participate in decision making.

There is no link to 'Local Democracy'  where citizens can find details of their councillors' contacts, meeting agendas and minutes, information on how to arrange to speak at meetings, information on petitions, election timetables and results and current consultations and consultation results.

These can all be found indirectly by using the 'search' facility, although you have to get the search term right, but for ease of use and accessibility there should be a direct link.

The most common request made by Wembley Matters readers is for councillor contact information and details of consultations - Brent Council should be providing that on its landing page.

There is a feedback form on the site to help make improvements. I have completed it and this is the link if you wish to provide feedback LINK

 UPDATE:

I am grateful to Life in Kilburn for pointing out via Twitter that you can get to the information via the 'Brent Council' tab right at the top of the page next to the Search button. Not at all obvious and as there is a separate tab for 'Residents' doesn't seem to apply to them.  

 

In my opinion it should be far more prominent but this is what the 'Brent Council' tab leads to:

 


2 comments:

Paul Lorber said...

Martin

It is the sad reflection of reality. Labour have over 90% of the Council seats on just over 50% of the votes. As there is NO true Democracy the website just simply reflects reality.

The link is held in reserve and will be activated as soon as we have PR (propotional representation) for local elections here in Brent.

Local residents could make a big contribution by voting just for those candidates and/or parties who support PR and fair democratic representation on the Council (and in Parliament).

Anonymous said...

This is supposed to be an improvement LOL