Lena Langlet is head of the democracy section at the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions, SALAR. She has long studied the effects of municipalities' lack of citizen dialogue.
– What we see is that if you are late in the process, it also leads to threats and hatred, harassment and violence, says Lena Langlet.
Harsh words and personal attacks
A recent example is Töreboda in Västergötland, where the municipality has come at odds with property owners in the village of Borreboda, who realized too late that the municipality wants to replace their homes with trade and industry.
Municipal representatives say that they informed in the way the law requires, but when about 30 villagers and municipal leaders met at an information meeting in April, it was too late to comment on the new master plan.
The meeting became rancorous with harsh words and personal attacks, and ended with many leaving the meeting prematurely.
Do more than the law requires
SKR has seen several similar cases where people feel that they have not received information in time on issues that can turn their lives upside down. Now Lena Langlet believes that municipalities must provide more information than the law requires.
"You need to have personal contact with those who are affected. It does not help to just inform through the website or in local media. You need to seek out people where they are and do it at a much earlier stage than you do under the legislation," says Lena Langlet.