Pilot inDialogue: Słupsk

In Słupsk, the purpose of the consultation “Quality of public space – we organize advertisements and small architecture” was to familiarize residents with the draft document, which will define the rules for placing advertisements, fences and small architecture in the city, and then to learn their opinions on the provisions contained in the document.

The purpose of adopting the document is to organize the urban space, clear it of information chaos by establishing specific rules, preparing a catalog of good practices and creating a friendly public space for its users.

As part of the consultation, pre-consultations of information materials, a text debate on the inDialogue platform and two face-to-face meetings at the City Hall are planned: one dedicated to local entrepreneurs and the other to the inhabitants of Słupsk.

During the consultation, no technical or organizational problems emerged that would prevent the implementation of any of the planned stages of the consultation.

In preparation for the consultation, the project team, in cooperation with the Office, organized two workshop meetings in Słupsk. The first one took place on January 17, 2017 and was attended by a total of 21 people, including representatives of the City Hall, local NGOs and organizations supporting people with disabilities. The aim of the workshop was to familiarize users with the functions of the inDialogue platform. The next workshop, which took place on April 25, was attended by eight representatives of the City Hall and NGOs. The aim of the training was to create a skeleton of consultations on the platform and to obtain information about the accessibility of the platform for residents with disabilities.

Information materials

The information materials prepared on the inDialogue platform contained basic information about the objectives of the resolution: “Resolution on establishing the rules and conditions for the location of small architecture objects, billboards and fences, their dimensions, quality standards and types of building materials from which they can be made”, in including permitted types of facilities, construction materials, location conditions, etc. The limitations include on the issue of spreading the effects of the resolution over time (its implementation and effects will be visible at the earliest after a few months from the entry into force of the resolution), as well as on the reduction of advertising profits of some housing associations and enterprises. The Proposed Solutions list three key proposals, indicating their advantages and disadvantages:

Regulation of advertisements in the city – their location, number and quality
Regulating the issue of small architecture in the city
Dividing the city into three areas where different regulations will apply, adapted to the needs of these areas.

In Sources of Information, a link to the Landscape Act enabling local governments to regulate the issue of advertisements and small architecture has been provided. Through the Annexes, the residents could get acquainted with the content of the draft Resolution, with a glossary of terms in the Resolution, as well as with a presentation containing visualizations of the proposed solutions related to the content of the resolution.

Commenting on information materials

Recruitment for consultations of information materials took place on April 10-17, 2017, and the next stage was commenting on the materials by residents, which lasted until the end of April. The Office invited residents to participate by publishing information on the Office’s website, as well as contacting local institutions and organizations. On April 17-28, commenting on information materials took place. Residents did not comment on the content of the materials.

Recruitment

Recruitment for consultations took place on May 10-24, 2017 and was also multi-stage (as above). On the website of the City Hall, information about the possibility of signing up (via the platform and in the Office) appeared, and the project team supported recruitment activities by inviting local organizations by e-mail.

Debates

Text debate on the platform

The debate lasted from May 24-June 13, and residents were asked to answer the following questions:

What should the public space in Słupsk look like? Please indicate what, in your opinion, should be possible to be placed in public space and what should not.
What do you think about the introduction of a uniform system for creating advertisements in the city? Please justify whether the introduction of uniformity in terms of materials and the shape of advertisements/small architecture is needed, if not – why diversity is better.
What do you think about the division of the city into three zones, where different rules for placing advertisements and small architecture will apply? Please justify whether the indicated division is good, whether the proposed rules are appropriate for the division.

Direct meetings

Meeting with entrepreneurs

On May 29 at the Słupsk Center for Non-Governmental Organizations and Social Economy at ul. Niedziałkowskiego 6 at 16:30 there was a meeting with entrepreneurs. The questions in the debate were related both to the questions of the textual debate and to the content of the Resolution itself.

Meeting with the inhabitants

On 05.06 in the Słupsk Center for Non-Governmental Organizations and Social Economy at ul. Niedziałkowskiego 6 at 4:30 p.m. a meeting with the residents took place. Participants were asked to answer questions analogous to those in a textual debate.

Experts

Beata Samborska was an expert in the consultations.

Consultation report

The consultation report was published in early November. The report is available here.