Stakeholder workshops - 13 December 2023

Following one on one conversations with officers of the council, councillors and partners New Local facilitated workshops on the 13 December 2023 to begin to develop a 'maturity model' for Wealden to help us understand where we are starting from in our journey to be a truly community powered council.

Thank you to everyone who was able to make one of the sessions, either at the East Sussex National or at the Hailsham Civic Community Hall. Both sessions were well attended and lively and there was a lot of discussion across the rooms.

At the workshop sessions Catriona and Grace from New Local spent a moment introducing community power and sharing some examples of national good practice before participants were then asked to get into the nitty gritty of where Wealden is at the moment in its journey towards being a community powered council.

Participants were asked to consider where Wealden District Council is in relation to being a community powered council across a series of areas;

• Strategy and decision-making
• Organisational culture
• Role of elected councillors
• Service delivery
• Community culture

Following on from this, participants were able to identify existing examples locally of community power and share with one another their hopes and concerns as Wealden transitions into a truly community powered council.

The next step, over Christmas is for New Local to analyse the results from the workshops before moving onto the next step of developing a roadmap for Wealden towards becoming a community powered council.