Enhancing Participatory Democracy: Islington

Abstract

In this chapter we examine the experience of the London Borough of Islington in developing a network of neighbourhood forums. It can be claimed that the council has gone further than any other local authority in the UK in attempting to improve the quality of public involvement in local government. While the bold steps taken by Islington are clearly tuned to the local environment, the innovations developed there will be of wider interest to the local government community because they offer practical insights about how to strengthen the democratic roots of local government.