It's all about Democracy

According to Wikipedia

Direct democracy (or pure democracy) is a form of government in which people vote on policy initiatives directly, as opposed to a representative democracy in which people vote for representatives who then vote on policy initiatives. Depending on the particular system in use, it might entail passing executive decisions, making laws, directly electing or dismissing officials and conducting trials. Two leading forms of direct democracy are Participatory democracy and Deliberative democracy.

Council engage the community in Direct Democracy by inviting folk to Have Your Say and currently we have the opportunity to let Council know what we think about the Draft Annual Plan.

Shortly, though, we will be given the opportunity to engage right at the beginning of the process of creating the New Brighton Masterplan at a series of workshops Council will be presenting. Coming up at the beginning of July, there'll be workshops for business owners, landowners and community groups along with some public drop-in sessions, too. This process, referred to as Enquiry by Design takes place in many disciplines, including land use planning, or urban planning, and has become a technique for consulting with all stakeholders. This typically involves intense and possibly multi-day meetings, involving municipal officials, developers, and residents. Successful Enquiry by Design promotes joint ownership of solutions and attempts to defuse typical confrontational attitudes between residents and developers. Residents who do participate get early input into the planning process. For developers and municipal officials these workshops achieve community involvement and may satisfy consultation criteria, with the objective of avoiding costly legal battles.

They hope to identify any problems or issues the community think there might be.

Once the workshops have taken place, a Draft Masterplan will be created followed by twelve weeks of consultation.

The New Brighton Masterplan will refer to the New Brighton Central Business District, or, The Mall.



Christchurch, currently, is all about democracy. It seems if you don't like something you can simply create a petition. A successful example of this might be the Avon Otakaro Network's Avon River Park petition, presented at parliament last week, but new petitions include the Petition for Affordable Social Housing , the Petition to extend the April 2013 Deadline in the Red Zone , and the Christchurch Rates Relief group who are petitioning Christchurch City Council for 100% rates relief for owners of uninhabitable homes due to earthquake damage.

But as Direct Democracy goes, you can't get any more direct. This is your chance to get involved. Put your thinking cap on and watch this space to find out more about how you can get involved in positive change in your community.