Community Consultation for Statutory Local Economic and Community Plan

This CityLabs activity harness the strengths of the University and Municipality partnership to support statutory consultation and participatory planning for the City's future.

Virtual Place

Centre for Executive Education, Lapps Quay, Cork

Date

Start: 13.04.2023

End: 18.04.2023

Partners

Cork City Council

From November 2022 to June 2023 University College Cork has been working in closely with our municipal partner Cork City Council to support the consultation phase of the devlopment of Cork's next Local Economic and Community Plan. The LECP is a statutory plan which will set out the objectives and actions needed to promote and support both the economic and community development of the County for the next 6 years

In April, the CityLabs Univer-City partnership hosted and facilitated two key Community Consultation Workshops to help shape and inform the development of Cork City’s new Local and Economic Community Plan. These community consultation workshops provided a forum for members of the public, community groups and organisations, small businesses, local networks and other stakeholders to come together and consider what is needed for successfully planning for the future of Cork City.

Over 170 people participated in the workshops, with participation from across the quadruple helix. The workshops were opened and attended by City Manager Ann Doherty and included 'provocations' from diverse stakeholders, respesenting different sectors of society and issues of relevance to the City and Plan.

Mark Wright, Cork Recovery Academy on Social Inclusion
Mary McCarthy, Director, Crawford Art Gallery on Culture
Paul Bolger, Director, ERI on Environment
Fionnuala O'Connell, Cork Migrant Centre on Inclusion
Ashley Amato, Cork Chamber on Supporting Business
JJ O'Connell, Northside for Business on Supporting Business
Valerie Byrne, Director National Scuplture Factory on Culture
Gina Johnson, Cork Climate Action Officer on Environment
Fiona Hurley, NASC Ireland on Inclusion

Taking a futures thinking lens, the workshops invited participants to add their insights and expertise to inform the development of the plan. Participants considered the challenges and opportunities ahead for the City and mapped key existing assets to be protected and harnessed as well as new or emerging assets that need nurturing and support to develop.

Extensive data and inputs was gathered through structured and facilitated table discussions. Work is ongoing for the analysis of the workshop consultations in alignment with the analysis of wider conultation inputs and submissions and the statutory process for the development of the plan.