NEWCASTLE 1999

WORKSHOP ON PUBLIC PARTICIPATION AT THE LOCAL LEVEL

- NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE - (Dec. 1999)

                     From December 4, to December 8, a Workshop on Public Participation in Decision-Making on Environmental Matters at the Local Level took place in Newcastle and was part of a programme of work related to the ‘Aarhus Convention’. The Aarhus Convention is formally known as the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Convention on access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters. British Government and Department for Environment, Transport and Regions (DETR) organized the whole event. As many as 121 participants from 36 countries and 5 international organizations were present and contributed the work on the workshops. The GREEN TABLE was the only representative from Yugoslavia.
            The workshop focused on good practice in public participation in decision-making on environmental matters at the local level, and in particular on two aspects of the Aarhus Convention:

public participation in connection with specific projects, such as a new road, a major factory or an airport extension (covered by Article 6 of the Convention)

public participation in connection with more general exercises such as Local Agenda 21 plans, development plans etc (Article 7 of the Convention)

public participation capacity building

On Dec. 5, we were presented two case studies: Newcastle City Centre Action Plan that exercised public participation for city development and new initiatives in renewing unused facilities and abandoned buildings, reconstruction of the old industrial area on the river banks, traffic deregulation and new trade centre construction; the other one was visit to Washington New Town were Sustainable development plan was displayed.

GREEN TABLE participated all three groups of workshops contributing them within our experience and skills:

Environmental Impact Assessment

Creating a plan for participation – when is it appropriate to start

Setting the objectives

Choosing the techniques

Using the media

The discussion was focused on good practice in these areas but also involved issues such as: when the public should be involved in the process, how they should be engaged, what information should be offered and how their involvement should be used in the process. The point of the workshop was not to focus on the legal text but to highlight good practice in public participation in a wider way from which all participants can learn.

The workshop has demonstrated that there are a wide range of ways to implement the requirements of the Aarhus Convention – there is no one single way. The earlier in the process it is undertaken, the better it is for public participation. However, it is important to note that the public is not homogenous – there are different groups that must be contacted if public participation is done properly.

Although the workshop focussed on practical experiences at the local level, it is very clear that much must be done by central Government to help local level exercises. Setting the legal framework and sending the right messages are vital.

The workshop showed that there is a lot of interesting work going on across the UNECE Region. However, it is clear that more can be done to improve public participation in the decisions covered by the Aarhus Convention. This improvement is an on-going process and the workshop has been a useful contribution to that. At the same time, awareness that the whole process cannot be obtained without participation of NGOs is heavily present. Still, overall impression is that NGOs are not taking their full role as it should be in respect to the Aarhus Convention, either because of lack of their own initiative or because local governments are not always very keen in working with organized groups but prefer to deal with public, in general.

The outcome will be the handbook that will contain the lessons highlighted at the Newcastle workshop and these will be illustrated by drawing on a range of public participation exercises as case studies. Some of these will be the ones discussed in Newcastle. The handbook will also include a final list of workshop participants. Building networks of people such as this who are interested in the same ideas is vital to spread good practice.

The next step would be to produce programme that will introduce public participation on, primarily, local level and to obtain support for it. Significant background will be experience from this workshop.