Community involvement UK news 2010

2010
*Business Plans for government departments that set out the work of the Government for the next four years published, 8 November number10.gov.uk, 8 November 2010 topic
	Devon County Council launches Devonomics website to support Local Economic Assessment and seeks views from from businesses, the public sector and the general public, 13/09/2010 devon.gov.uk, 13/09/2010 place
	Government aims to replace bureaucratic accountability with democratic accountability, 13 August communities.gov.uk, 13 August 2010 "Local people, not Whitehall, will now be the audience for the assurances audit gives on local spending decisions."
	Prime Minister talks of UK as "world leader in the new politics where..." the "...voice for feedback and deliberative decisions can transform the way we make local and national policies and decisions." 22 March number10.gov.uk, 22 March 2010 £30m to support the creation of an institute of web science headed by Sir Tim Berners Lee and Professor Nigel Shadbolt. "The web and the internet offers us a chance to reinvent “deliberative democracy” for the modern age. Digital government will help open the door to new ways of enabling people to influence and even decide public policy."
	Peterborough launches Smarter City Project aiming to transform the city into the leading sustainable city in the UK, 16 Mar IBM Press room, 16 Mar 2010 Opportunity Peterborough, Peterborough City Council, IBM (NYSE: IBM), Royal Haskoning and Green Ventures announce a new collaboration. The collaboration has outlined plans to launch a Sustainable City Visualisation project, which will initially focus on building a new online platform to monitor and analyze data on Peterborough's energy, water, transport and waste systems. This data will be used to produce a real-time, integrated view of the city's environmental performance. Residents and city officials will be able to log on to the web portal and easily access the necessary information to make more informed decisions about resource usage. For example, the city will be able to make suggestions to improve home water and energy usage, while being able to work more effectively with the utilities to plan the long term energy and water infrastructure that is needed for a sustainable future. For the first time, utilities, government agencies and local businesses will be able to share information for a more comprehensive view of the city's ecosystem. This will enable the various agencies to streamline and make more effective, ecologically-minded decisions and strategies to maximize sustainability. The system will also allow Peterborough residents to provide feedback and offer suggestions for improvement. place
	Citizens demand more opportunity to tackle social challenges, 23/02/2010. Eight out of ten people believe the government should allow communities to come up with their own solutions to difficult social challenges such as climate change, youth crime and obesity. New report from NESTA outlines radical framework for implementing localism. National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) , 23/02/2010
*Digital Citizens want to engage with politicians - Passive democracy is not enough, Feb 10 Hansard Society, Feb 10, 2010.
:* 70% of respondents agree that the internet makes it easier for them to participate in civic and political activities
:* 49% agree that they would generally prefer to use the internet to participate in civic and political activities topic
*Private Members Bill, which the Government says it backs, aims to strengthen the scrutiny powers of local authorities over all significant local public service spending in their areas. 1 February communities.gov.uk, 1 February 2010 
*Government advocates 'community contracts' to improve local services, 4 January 2010 Communities and Local Governmen, 4 January 2010 
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