how this is managed in Egedal Municipality.
prioritize the municipal areas and sets budgets for administrative work. The political support may depend
on whether there is political consensus and confidence in making the required investments.
In Egedal Municipality the work on energy savings is
primarily anchored with the Planning Committee. The
Committee deals with many things other than energy, but
the members pay great attention to promoting energy
savings. This attention is due to the success of creating a
positive political climate around it.
things rolling. But there has been a positive feedback loop, where politicians are continuously presented
with evidence that the work is bearing fruit. On this basis, there is a constructive and positive dialogue with
the administration about what more can be done.
The positive spiral seems to be based on a strong collaboration between the Planning Committee and the
administration. The Chairman of the planning Committee meets regularly with caseworkers and
management of the administration. Conversely these often attend the committee meetings. At the
meetings the results obtained are presented to the politicians and there is an open and honest discussion
of the challenges.
The strong cooperation keeps the focus on energy savings. The administration experiences that politicians
actually back up their work and have ambitions in this area. Politicians are experiencing a great sense of
comfort that the effort makes sense. It helps to create a constructive political climate in which there is
support for the work to implement energy savings. The political support is crucial for the continuous
launching of larger and more challenging projects. At the same time there is also a risk that political support
may fade out when energy savings are harder to realize.
Decisions based on consensus
In addition to ensuring a good working relationship with the administration, the Planning Committee is also
working internally to ensure a good working climate. This means that many decisions today are based on
consensus.
In the Planning Committee chemistry and expectations are continuously being aligned. This means that
things are being discussed thoroughly until there is nothing more to say. Even when the Planning
Committee was established, there was a strong political desire to take the time to think and develop
strategies. That is why there was also spent time on the Committee for inspiration tours and lengthy
discussions about what the goals of the Committee's work should be. In practice, there are only a few votes
in the Committee. Consequently, many of the plans also evolved as a developmental process where the
ambitions started small. After this the ambitions have been expanded, as they gained positive experiences.
words have been said, you have an
understanding of it."
Ib Sorensen, Planning Committee Chairman