We need to talk

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There's no getting away from it: if you want planning permission, you have to engage with local people first. Kicking off our five-page guide to consultation, Kevin Howlett explains how statements of community involvement can help you bring recalcitrant residents round to your way of thinking. Overleaf, how an exhibition changed the face of an Ipswich scheme. Illustration by Allan Sanders

The Planning & Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 introduced a planning framework that aimed to speed up the system and involve the community more. Fundamental to achieving the second objective are statements of community involvement (SCI).

The act requires councils across the country to draw up the statements - essentially policy documents that guide all community engagement on planning in the borough, both for the council and the developer.

PPS Group recently conducted some research on how far councils have come in drafting their documents. We found that the vast majority of councils are close to adopting their SCIs while a very small percentage have yet to begin the process of producing them. More than half of the councils interviewed are set to have adopted their statements by the middle of this year.

It is clear that SCIs will be a reality soon.

Reach for the SCI

Once the council in which you wish to develop has adopted its SCI, the degree to which your application has complied with the policy will be assessed when your scheme is submitted to officers. In other words, community involvement, or pre-application consultation, is no longer optional.

In many councils, this has been the case for the past two years anyway and developers have had to engage in pre-application consultation on their schemes. However, to date, this has been on an ad hoc basis. The new climate means this council-by-council assessment of whether consultation is required has come to an end.

If we understand that SCIs are here to stay, what should we expect from them and what is the best way of meeting their criteria? It is clear that each council will have a different set of rules for developers. However, there are key principles of community engagement that can be applied - with a degree of flexibility - when structuring most consultation exercises. The seven-point guide (below) shows how you might run a programme.

How to get more from consultation

Community engagement can be seen simply as a box-ticking exercise designed to meet procedural requirements. However, the requirement to consult is good news. Consultation can be used as a tool to uncover or strengthen support for proposals. Identifying and harnessing latent backing for your scheme will play well with elected representatives and officers.

OK, you say, but my scheme is controversial and will not attract any support. In that case, consultation allows you to respond appropriately to the public's concerns. You will then be able to demonstrate to officers and councillors how you have listened. It is much better to find out that the local community do not like an aspect of your scheme before their elected representatives are asked to consider it.

The Planning & Compulsory Purchase Act may be taking time to take effect in some areas, but a significant milestone is approaching and soon the requirement to consult will be set. Knowing how to ensure your application is not rejected on the grounds of inadequate consultation and how to use consultation to generate support for your scheme will be crucial to your success.

7 principles of consultation

1 The earlier the better

With statements of community involvement, pre-application consultation is a must. You must start early to allow a sufficient – and meaningful – length of time between beginning the exercise and submitting the application. Councillors and officers will not take kindly to a rushed job two or three weeks before submission. It is almost as important to be seen to be consulting as it is actually to consult. Setting out your programme early also allows you to take control of the proceedings rather than have them dictated to you.

2 Identify and notify your consultees

It sounds obvious, but it is easy to forget and easy to neglect. So, it is crucial to work out whoto consult and to let them know what will take place during the consultation period. Tell them when and where events will take place as early as possible.

3 Inform your consultees

Consultation is of limited value if consultees are not given sufficient information on the development plan. The proposals should be covered in detail before any centrepiece activity such as an exhibition. At this stage, it is also important to set out any constraints to the consultation – for example, if you will not be discussing the principle of development on the site, make that clear.

4 Consult your consultees

This is where you carry out the centrepiece event or series of events at which members of the public and key stakeholder groups have the opportunity to liaise with the project team and put forward their ideas and aspirations for the development. These events can be workshops, focus groups or public exhibitions – if at all possible, avoid public meetings. Remember that the type of event and the extent to which you are able to alter aspects of the scheme will influence the level of opportunity offered to consultees to put forward their aspirations.

5 Measure and analyse results

Once you have captured the views of those consulted, quantify and analyse the results.

6 Respond and change

Having gone through the process of engaging the community and hearing their views, the least you can do is to respond to their concerns – either through further clarification of the details or by providing direct answers to prominent questions raised. Demonstrate that you have listened to the issues raised and that, where possible, you have responded. Where it is not appropriate to do so, make sure you explain why. Clearly, the extent to which you are able to amend your proposals will vary from scheme to scheme.

7 Publish proposals

The worst thing you can do is not consult, the second worst is to consult but not tell anyone about it. Going back to your consultees is a crucial stage in the process. They need to feel they have been listened to and their comments have not been sent into the ether. It is an opportunity to thank people for giving up their time to take an interest in your scheme and, perhaps more importantly, it is an opportunity to remind them (including the key decision-makers) of the advantages of the scheme.