We ran a sensitizing event recently (on the 23rd April) with a delegation of councilors from Lancaster City Council. This was a very interesting group, we have very good relationships with the Officers of the City Council (the people paid to implement policy) but we have had less contact with the elected representatives. Its was this group of elected councilors that attended our event.
We talked about Proud and how the relationship between the University and the Storey institute was strong and very productive. We also explored with them the possibility of the co-design od public policy. There was a great deal of excitement about the formal launch of Proud UK and the contribution there by Stephan Vincent od Region 27 and his work on establishing innovation centers for regional governments. This is especially interesting as they not only co-design policy (decisions that apply to many cities, not just a single urban space) but he also help local governments co-design their own tools for use in these labs.
Leon Cruickshank
Gemma Coupe