Assembly North Briefing Papers

Local Government Today

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Reform Options

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Building Blocks

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Criteria for Evaluating Options

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Background

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Briefing Papers

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Welcome to Assembly North

You can download the Assembly North Briefing Papers, or browser the individual sections to your right. You can also read the Assembly North Overview Report

Over two weekends, participants debated some very important issues to do with how the South Yorkshire area will be governed in the future. The results of these discussions were closely followed by local politicians and officials in national government, who are currently deciding about new governing arrangements, as well as the local media and other organisations.

There was a second Assembly looking at Hampshire and the Isle of Wight – Assembly South. Together the Assemblies are an important experiment in a new way of doing democracy – asking citizens themselves to discuss and decide on how we should be governed.

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Participants

The participants for Assembly North were selected on a semi-random basis by an independent polling company. It was not possible to apply directly to participate in Assembly North. The 45 participants were drawn from throughout the Sheffield City Region.

Convention Dates


A message from Angela Smith MP

Harry Harpham gave his support

"If we want true democratic politics in Britain it means involving ordinary men and women in the decisions that affect their lives, not just at election time, but as part of an ongoing process. That’s why I am extremely pleased to be backing Citizens’ Assembly North; it puts the idea of local people having a say into practice."

The late Harry Harpham MP
Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough

A message from David Blunkett

Too often, political commentators assume a growing public disenchantment with democracy. These assemblies aim to turn this assumption on its head. They will give everyday Britons the chance to learn about and play a meaningful role in changing how decisions are made about them."

David Blunkett
Former MP Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough