About thinking and participating

We like to give space to ideas and plans of residents. We call this participation or say. You can think along about plans of the municipality. But you can also have your own idea for your neighborhood, to make decisions together with us.

There are different ways of participation:

• Citizen participation: we inform and involve residents, organizations and other stakeholders as early as possible in municipality plans.
• Government participation: we give residents the opportunity to do something themselves for their neighborhood. The municipality helps or supports the initiative.

Your opinion is valuable. You know what is going on in your street, neighborhood or work. That knowledge helps us to make better choices and decisions. By working together, our plans fit better with what people really need. We only do this if it really adds something. After all, participation takes time and effort, from both residents and the municipality. That's why we prepare each process well and explain clearly what we do with your input.

There are different ways in which you can participate. Sometimes we ask your opinion through a survey, other times we invite you to a meeting. We use four forms of participation:

• Participate: you receive information about what is going on.
• Thinking along: you give your opinion on plans or you help come up with ideas.
• Participate: you decide within clear frameworks. We work together as equal partners.
• Participate: you carry out an initiative yourself. The municipality helps you or participates.

For every project, we explain in advance what the goal is, how much influence you can have and what the follow-up looks like. We are open and clear about what happens with the results and what decision is made afterwards.

We have a document called the Handelingskader Participatieve gemeente Gemert-Bakel:

• Part I - Basis(external link)
• Part II - Vision(external link)

• Part III - Preparation and framing(external link)

  This document explains how we organize participation in our municipality. It is intended for everyone: residents, the municipal council, the municipal executive and our employees. This makes it clear to everyone what they can expect.

Please contact our participation brokers viagemeente@gemert-bakel.nlor0492-37 85 00.