Informing Policy
Sligo PPN works to influence policy and decisions at a local, regional and national level.
We do this by ….
- Electing representatives onto local and regional decision making committees, who then advocate for PPN and community interests
- Making policy submissions
- Highlighting issues of interest through our networks and in local media
Community Influence
The members of Sligo PPN have two main ways that they can influence the decisions made by Sligo County Council. The first is by electing people from amongst our members into positions on all the committees and decision making structures in the council. The second is by participating whenever your council calls for input from the public. We will publicise those calls and invitations on this website.
1. Putting community at the heart of decision making
Sligo County Council is comprised of your elected local representatives as well as council staff and the Chief Executive. The councillors are responsible for making many of the decisions around what is to be done in the county, however they often take direction and expertise from the council staff and from other people with valuable expertise or experience.
In order to gather all these voices together the Council runs three ‘Strategic Planning Committees’ or SPCs for short and it also runs the Joint Policing Committee JPC, and the Local Community Development Committee LCDC. These committees have members from a variety of backgrounds some are councillors, some are council staff, some people are from business agricultural or trade union backgrounds and of course some are PPN members. These committees usually research, discuss and propose the course of action that they want the council to take on any issue or plan and then once that has been done the elected councillors will officially adopt the policy decision at their official council meeting.
The PPN is responsible for holding elections and selecting the people from amongst its membership who will sit on these committees. These representatives then have the job of attending all the meetings of their particular committee and of bringing the concerns or ideas from the community groups in Sligo into those meetings. They also have responsibility to feed back whatever is happening to the people who elected them.
At the moment we have over 30 representatives elected from the membership of community and voluntary groups in the county who sit on these committees.
To see who your PPN Representatives are and what’s happening on their committees click here.
2. Consultations and Calls for Submissions
Sometimes when the Council wants to gather views, opinions and local expertise they will make a public call for submissions or hold public consultations. When that happens we will add the details and the links and instructions on how to have your voice heard through this website and the PPN social media platforms.
Having Your Voice Heard at National and EU Level:
Although Sligo PPN’s main job is to make sure people can participate in decisions made at County level, residents can of course influence national and EU policies too. When we hear of an opportunity for you to have your voice heard at National level we will put the call out.
Find out more about our recent policy work and submissions below:
Submission from Sligo PPN to the National Planning Framework 2040
Submission to the Joint Policing Committee Strategic Plan
Submission to the Sligo County Development Plan
‘Reps News’, March 2017, Influencing Decision Making in Sligo