Public Participation in Tampere

1. T A M P E R E E N K A U P U N K I Public Participation in Tampere Mr. Antti Leskinen Head of Local Democracy Unit City of Tampere, Finland

2. City Of Tampere • Founded on 1 October 1779 by King Gustav III of Sweden • Tampere is located between two lakes, Näsijärvi and Pyhäjärvi • The third biggest city in Finland • The biggest inland city in the Nordic countries

3. Tampere in brief • Inhabitants 212 000 • Inhabitants in the nearby region 355 000 • Surface area 688 km2 • Population density • ca. 400 people/km2

4. The management model of Tampere is based on: • politically elected mayor • multi-provider model • development of public participation

5. Why do we develop public participation? • To develop customer-oriented services and possibilities for the residents to influence on their environment and life. • Openness of planning and decision-making is an important aim of public organisations. • National laws require public participation

6. Public participation and the Tampere City Organisation • The chair of the city council, the mayor and four deputy mayors promote local democracy, public participation and user-oriented services. • Local Democracy Unit in the Central Administration

7. The main tools • Advisory citizen workgroups (Alvari) in four of the five districts • Valma –eParticipation system • Top politicians / residents’ meetings 10 times a year • Various youth and children’s forums • Neighbourhood web pages “Mansetori” to increase information exchange and co-operation between inhabitants.

8. Advisory citizen workgroup • nominated by the City Board for two years to four sub areas of ca. 40.000 inhabitants • free access for residents, representatives of associations and businesses • works mainly in subgroups • members of the city council cannot be members of the advisory workgroup but may work in subgroups • members are recruited by the Local Democracy Unit.

10. the Valma – forum (1) eParticipation to make the city’s decision-making processes more transparent: • increase citizens´ possibilities to follow decision-making process via Internet • Official documents accessible trough the Valma • The units have to use of Valma.

11. the Valma forum (2) • The city officials insert issues at an early stage of preparation/planning and ask for comments • Everyone can look at the issues, all official documents and other peoples comments and insert a comment.

12. Other possibilities to participate • Land use planning Possibility also to influence the planning process! A participation and impact assessment plan is obligatory by law • Children’s council meeting once a year • Youth forum’s general meeting once a year • Two representatives of youth in two city committees • Various hearings, “gåturs”, visits, participative groups and GIS-based participation organised by the administrative units.

13. Challenges Motivation of officials and residents: • New, user friendly eParticipation tools needed. • Public participation standard for the City • Training of officials and participants • Feedback for the participants/NGOs about their influence on plans & decisions.

14. We are not alone! • The Ministry of Justice with few other ministries, cities and communities in Finland launched a democracy development program in 2010. • The Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities develops public participation according its new strategy • The biggest cities in Finland have a network of public participation professionals. • Many authorities have experience in public participation e.g in over 500 EIA processes.

15. Thank you!