Karine Traval-Michelet, Mayor of Colomiers and Vice-President of Toulouse Métropole, wanted to put citizen participation at the heart of the municipality’s public policies, particularly urban planning. But how does this happen in practice?
“We are keen to involve the people furthest from the decision. They play a role in assessing the needs of residents in the same way as the expertise of public space managers,” explains Ségolène Labbé, deputy in charge of the Local Democracy delegation This delegation was created for this and I am supported by a team which does enormous work. But above all, it is the six neighborhood committees which today have 160 representatives of civil society. bring qualitative added value to urban projects or which are at their initiative From the simple development of green spaces to large-scale projects, including road developments, all are of general interest. With my elected colleagues from the others. delegations, in particular town planning with Laurence Cazalis – we work together upstream of all these transversal projects”.
Local life council renewed for three years
In the wake of the major citizen consultation carried out in 2020 which collected 4,500 responses, or nearly 13% of the municipal population (not counting the 100 micro-sidewalks, 48 individual interviews and four thematic workshops), the citizen participation tools were innovatively developed and systematized. The range is wide: walking diagnosis, user workshop, voting on interactive panels, QR code, website survey… or more classically meetings in schools, community centers.
The local life council is coming to the end of its three-year cycle and must be renewed. “This is why applications will soon be called for to integrate newcomers into the neighborhood committees,” says Ségolène Labbé.
