Review of Public Adminstration - What does this mean for Local Councils?

The current 26 council areas will be rationalised to create 11 new Council areas.

This rationalisation will strike a balance in reducing some of the diversity between the existing areas in terms of:

• Population characteristics and rating wealth;
• Promoting the ability of councils and their communities to identify and interact with each other; 

The developmental challenges that are facing Local Government in Northern Ireland are a close reflection of the changing roles and responsibilities currently experienced by municipal authorities worldwide. In Northern Ireland there has been a strong orientation towards improving levels of participation in governance through the development of innovative systems at Local Government level for the creation of better government and efficient service provision.  

Over the course of the implementation of the findings of the RPA, Councils across Northern Ireland will face major challenges, particularly in promoting recycling, developing waste management strategies, environmental monitoring, urban regeneration, policing, planning, housing, roads & transport and community relations & development. New innovative and creative models of service delivery will need to be developed to promote modern and efficient practice, by grouping councils together for the delivery of citizen focused services.

Local government throughout the UK, Ireland and Northern Ireland is working towards meeting government-imposed deadlines for the delivery of on-line services. This involves many changes as Councils prioritise and start to deliver such services.  Most importantly, Councils are being encouraged to innovate in terms of how they work and deliver information and services to both their employees and customers. The efficient delivery of on-line public services requires a number of core technology components closely linked to changes in work practices.  We believe that geographic information (and associated systems) is one of these core technology components and that LocalViewNI encapsulates geographic information at the heart of its citizen facing services oriented environment. 

Find out more information on the Review of Public Administration Implementation ››