Scottish Government

Review of the Renewing Local Democracy Project: Findings Summary

This review of the e-Democracy pilot project 'Renewing Local Democracy' ( www.e-communitycouncil.org ) was commissioned by the Scottish Executive and conducted during 2006 by ECOTEC Research and Consulting Limited.

The aims of this review were to assess the effectiveness of the pilot website in terms of its:

• impact on community engagement,
• impact on the role and functioning of community councils; and
• potential for rollout more widely throughout Scotland.

Main Findings

• Usage of the website was fairly low, but did grow during the pilot. Usage peaked around key local events/issues and fell away in between, as would be expected. Web statistics did not provide demographic information on users - so we do not know who was using the site.
• The website could be linked to some increases in public engagement in the pilot areas; attendance at public meetings increased slightly and a new community councillor was recruited via the website.
• The website impacted positively on community councils in helping to raise their profile locally, and increasing efficiency and transparency in their administration and communications. It enabled community councils to engage more frequently with their constituents.
• The website enabled small numbers of local people to raise important local issues and see those issues tackled and resolved.
• A limited amount of marketing was carried out to promote the website and perhaps as a result the project engaged with only a small percentage of the community resident in the local areas.
• Technically the website did not always represent best practice in the field and lacked individuality. Several key aspects are in need of improvement and testing indicated failure against commonly accepted web accessibility standards, running the risk of breaching the provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act.
• There are now a range of low-cost alternative e-Democracy models available which offer similar functionality to the pilot website and may prove an attractive alternative model to the one developed in this pilot if rollout is considered.

Background

The 'Renewing Local Democracy' pilot project was funded to a maximum of £169,000 from the Scottish Executive through the 21 ^st Century Government Unit and ran from January 2004 to January 2006. The website was developed by the International Teledemocracy Centre at Napier University in collaboration with six Community Councils ( CCs) and included blog-style discussion areas, online surveys and a private log-in section for councillors to use for administrative purposes.

Methodology

The evaluation used an evaluation framework to assess the pilot project. The following methods were used to evaluate the pilot project:

• desk review of project information,
• technical review of website design and statistics
• content analysis of a sample of messages;
• desk review of comparator e-Democracy literature and models and examples;
• interviews with project stakeholders, CCs and the local community; and
• a cost-benefit analysis of the website.

Findings

Impacts on community engagement

Usage of the website was at a fairly low level, but did grow during the pilot. Whilst two of the six websites were well used, the others were barely used at all.

There were small numbers of regular users (numbering in the tens), and some prolific users around 'hot topics' such as the Housing Stock Transfer issue.

The web metrics package used did not provide any insights on users - so we do not know who was using the site.

The website led to some increases in public engagement in the pilot areas; attendance at public meetings increased slightly and a new community councillor was recruited via the website. The website enhanced the transparency of Community Council's work.

The website enabled small numbers of local people to raise important local issues and see these tackled and resolved (for example litter problems and changes to local transport routes).

There was limited marketing to promote the website and the project did not identify and engage with a wide cross section of the community in the local areas.

Impacts on community councils

The website impacted positively on CCs in helping to raise their profile locally, and increasing efficiency and transparency in their administration and communications. It enabled councillors to engage more frequently with their constituents. The success of the website however was highly dependent on the level of local enthusiasm for the tools as well as IT skills levels.

Technical review

Technically, the website did not always compare well with best practice in the field and it lacked functionality and individuality. Testing indicates failure against commonly accepted web accessibility standards, running the risk of breaching the provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act.

Comparator e-Democracy websites

The evaluation considered the pilot in the context of other initiatives across the UK, which in the broadest sense promote citizens' communication with community bodies and local authorities. the UK. A typology of three types of e-democracy websites was established.

Informational sites - these primarily gave out information to citizens.

Sites to enhance democratic participation - these included the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's local authority led websites that allow a feedback loop between citizens and representatives.

Organically-growing participatory sites - these are developed bottom-up by citizens themselves.

Two alternative initiatives operating in Scotland were explored: 'Your Community Council' which runs a network of 37 community council websites and includes discussion forums, and 'the Local Channel', which offers an interactive service to a network of 23,000 community websites. Both of these models were offering similar functionality to the pilot website and it was clear that there has been significant development in this sector since the pilot project began. While these initiatives were not compared directly in terms of accessibility and usage, they offer suggestions for revenue mechanisms that may help sustain roll-out.

Conclusions

Potential for rollout

Our review of the evidence suggests that the toolkit may receive a positive response if opened out to a wider number of CCs - dissemination activities carried out during the pilot had already generated some interest. The recent consultation around the future of CCs (carried out by the Scottish Executive), suggests that this is a timely opportunity for learning from the project to be shared on a wider basis, in the hope of improving the working methods and profile of CCs.

Barriers

However several barriers exist to rollout including varying levels of IT skills (particularly among older volunteers) and access to IT equipment and the internet (for councillors and the public), as well as the fact that many CCs already have their own website and may not wish to subscribe to an alternative - and potentially more expensive - model.

In addition, the existence of other cost-effective models of e-Democracy, which could be suited to the type of engagement required by the community councils, means that continuing the funding of the pilot project at the same levels as before may be an expensive option.

Of the comparator sites assessed, the 'Local Channel' was the most relevant, as it presents CCs with a zero-cost financial investment model, requiring only the investment of time by those developing the websites. It also offers some, if not all, of the functionality required by the councillors, such as discussion forums and document sharing.

The pilot project, by comparison, was a high-cost initiative that had fairly ambitious aims to raise participation, and to enhance local democracy. These emergent low-cost alternatives now seem attractive, since little direct finance would be needed from potential funders. The comparator websites have also demonstrated that a revenue generating model is also viable in the community sphere, although some community councillors regard commercial sponsorship of their activities as inappropriate.

Recommendations

1. Consideration should be given to adopting a new or re-designed technical model before rollout is considered.

2. Should the decision be made to stay with the current model we would recommend improvements including changes to the blogging software and web statistics packages used. We would recommend a switch to discussion forum type software to enhance the discussion areas of the website.

3. The look and feel of the site should be made more 'locally-focussed' and accessibility should be improved significantly to ensure the site complies with Priority Level 2 ( AA) of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines..

4. A more systematic approach to authentication of users (perhaps through a registration area) would be recommended. This would validate the responses received and prevent spamming.

5. More time and effort should have been invested by the appropriate project partners in engaging with local communities in the pilot areas including disengaged groups and other local community groups and public representative organisations.

6. The exploration, by any proponents of roll-out, of opportunities for future funding should start at a fairly local scale, for example with neighbouring CCs or at sub-regional level, before attempting to expand to other regions or nationally.

7. Allowing controlled advertising on the website to fund the project - as in other web models - should be considered as an option.

8. The recommended option would be to move the project over to one of the existing models in existence (such as the Local Channel), which offer similar functionality, plus hosting and user support, for a much reduced cost.

This document (and other Research Findings and Reports) and information about social research in the Scottish Executive may be viewed on the Internet at:
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The site carries up-to-date information about social and policy research commissioned and published on behalf of the Scottish Executive. Subjects covered include transport, housing, social inclusion, rural affairs, children and young people, education, social work, community care, local government, civil justice, crime and criminal justice, regeneration, planning and women's issues. The site also allows access to information about the Scottish Household Survey.