During the summer of the year 2017, we carried out a questionnaire survey under the auspices of the Mayor of the City of Brno entitled “Possibilities and Potential of Long-term Cooperation within the Brno Metropolitan Area“, that took place in cooperation with the Faculty of Economics and Administration of Masaryk University. The questionnaire was addressed to all 166 mayors of municipalities located inside the Brno Metropolitan Area. The objective of the questionnaire was to find out whether the hinterland of Brno perceives the benefits of collaboration with neighbouring municipalities and whether it wants to be actively involved in such collaboration even after the year 2020.
Within the framework of the questionnaire, we investigated whether Brno’s hinterland perceives the benefits of cooperation with the municipalities and whether it wants to cooperate actively even after the year 2020. Furthermore, we were also interested in understanding whether the municipalities know that they are part of the Brno Metropolitan Area, what topics they want to address or whether they are willing also to participate financially.
We analysed the results of the questionnaire survey in autumn 2017, and we received some really valuable feedback from the mayors:
- 99% of the municipalities think it is appropriate to address selected issues of strategic and spatial planning at the metropolitan level
- 93% of the municipalities want to participate, either actively or passively, in cooperation in the framework of the Brno Metropolitan Area
- There are miscellaneous topics that motivate the neighbouring municipalities – tourism, cooperation of municipalities in relation to Brno, implementation of projects of regional importance, environmental issues, etc.
- Those municipalities, which are located in the immediate neighbourhood with the city of Brno, are much more willing to cooperate and likewise contribute from their own budget to a prospective metropolitan fund
- 81% of municipalities do not want to accept a discussion about the possible merging of municipalities
You can download the questionnaire here (only in Czech).
The article “Cooperation differs. Intentions of municipalities towards metropolitan cooperation in post-socialist space – Brno, Czech Republic” outlines the outcomes of the questionnaire. The article can be downloaded here.
An expert paper concerning the metropolitan cooperation in Brno Metropolitan Area was published in European Planning Studies review. You can read about the outcomes of this questionnaire in this article.