ConsultOnline blog
Ideas for better planning consultation
Insights on public consultation, community engagement, and planning communications.
Consultation post Covid
This time two weeks ago a development director of a leisure company might have been running or contributing to a consultation event for a proposed scheme – providing there was enough hand sanitizer to go round. But what a difference a fortnight makes. Today all leisure facilities are closed, public meetings are banned and most ...
No consultation lockdown published in Scottish Housing News
This time two weeks ago a housing association might have been running or contributing to a consultation event for a proposed scheme – providing there was enough hand sanitizer to go round. But what a difference a fortnight makes. Today all public meetings and construction work is banned, and any ongoing work is taking place ...
Coronavirus and consultation
In the epicentre of a crisis, looking to the future can seem both pointless and worrying. But longer term, challenges can create positives – consider the career opportunities for women following WW1 and the establishment of the NHS following WW2. The potential impact of coronavirus on the development sector is significant, not just today but ...
Stakeholder analysis: getting it right
Researching likely consultees at the start of the consultation process ensures that the consultation strategy takes into account the appropriate number of residents to be targeted, the diversity within the community and an understanding of where power lies. Without it, the consultation runs the risk of being asymmetrical and failing to reach certain sections of ...
Good consultation is good PR – despite what the consultation experts say!
An organisation specialising in consultation, which will remain nameless (you know who you are!) continually refers – despite my protestations to the contrary – to PR as ‘spin’. In its eyes, consultation which doesn’t deliver good two way dialogue is ‘PR’. As a PR consultant specialising in consultation, this has always irritated me because PR ...
Penny Norton speaks at the TCPA seminar Getting Public Participation Right.
Penny Norton speaks at the TCPA’s seminar on Getting Public Participation Right following her contribution to the TCPA Practical Guides – Guide 11: People, planning and power which was launched at the event.
Planning reform – but at what cost?
Today is the deadline for responses to the Government’s consultation on its policy paper Planning reform: supporting the high street and increasing the delivery of new homes, which proposes to increase the Permitted Development Rights allowing change of use and in doing so removes public consultation from decisions affecting the regeneration of town centres. I ...
Planning reform – for the worse
Today is the deadline for responses to the Government’s consultation on its policy paper Planning reform: supporting the high street and increasing the delivery of new homes, which proposes to increase the Permitted Development Rights allowing change of use and in doing so removes public consultation from decisions affecting the regeneration of town centres. I ...
The Raynsford Review and the potential for greater community involvement in planning published in Town and Country Planning
At the end of November, the TCPA published Planning 2020: the final report of the Raynsford Review of Planning in England. The report includes some excellent recommendations but will they change policy on consultation in planning? The final report is an incredibly comprehensive and significant assessment of the English planning system by former housing minister ...
The Raynsford Review and the Potential for Greater Community Involvement in Planning – Town and Country Planning
I am frequently asked whether consultation is a legal requirement in planning. The fact that it is impossible to answer in fewer than 100 words exemplifies just how complex community involvement in planning has become. And so I, and other Associates of the Consultation Institute, very much welcome the Interim Report of the Raynsford Review ...
Quality at a price that doesn’t match
ConsultOnline clients benefit from the strategic advice of an Associate of The Consultation Institute (skilled and experienced in all aspects of consultation, up to date with case law, guidance and new methodologies) and the tactics of the author of the definitive guide to consultation in planning (Public Consultation and Community Involvement in Planning: a twenty-first ...
The Revised NPPF: a missed opportunity
In May, the Government (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government) held a consultation on revisions to the National Planning Policy Framework – the headline planning policy document from which all other planning policy stems. I contributed to the consultation through The Consultation Institute’s response, which commented specifically on the very opaque legislation / guidance ...