COMMUNITY CONSULTATION
possible to gain their feedback on matters such as scale, appearance, layout and materials etc. The NPPF also places a
requirement on the development to have ‘quality design’ - although it fails to define what good design is! This requirement for localism to influence a proposal’s design will be unnerving for many architects, developers and planning agents alike, who are going to have to sit down and take on board comments from the public. Of course ‘Joe Public’ may not have any qualifications in architecture, but their opinions on issues such as design and the layout of a scheme must still be taken on board. Within your community consultation you can also educate communities on good and bad design and show them graphically how good design can transform a locality, and how bad design can diminish the appeal of an area. Design is often a divisive
subject and differences of opinion - even in planning offices
- are common, that’s why it’s vital to liaise directly with the local planning departments and refer to the relevant council’s Local Planning Authorities own Supplementary Planning Documents or older Supplementary Planning Guidance on design. Now it’s time to get out there
and start talking to the community. There are lots of techniques you can use to engage with the local community from running roundtable discussions with the mother and toddler group, to directly mailing all residents in a mile-radius of a proposed site etc. Whatever technique you think will be most effective you must start by putting yourself in the shoes of the local resident, and see your proposed development through their eyes. Too often in the past a developer has hired out a village hall or hotel, run an extensive advertising and media relations campaign to invite local people to the event, drafted up a lengthy power-point
presentation and sent the planning agent on their behalf to stand in front of a crowd of locals to present their proposals. The public want to meet the
team, they’re not stupid, and if the person presenting doesn’t have all the facts at their fingertips they’ll see the developers as uncaring and arrogant. Locals want to have the chance to air their views and have them taken on board, complacency breeds contempt, and an angry mass of locals can have serious repercussions on a scheme. Fortunately, community consultation has moved on from this confrontational ‘them and us’ style approach. However, if you want to invite people in large groups to view your plans, a more effective approach is to create exhibition stands and an area you can consult one-to-one with members of the community, rather than the silent majority crowding around one ringleader. The digital era is upon us and
community consultation must also grasp the opportunities this provides. Facebook and Twitter
sites are now essential, as well as specialist websites where communities can view all the data from their homes or workplaces in their own time, and at their own convenience. All of these digital techniques are ideal to create a dialogue with all members of the community, and offer you the opportunity to monitor responses, which will really help you develop your plans and demonstrate to Local Planning Authorities how you’ve listened to the community, and developed schemes to suit their needs. Of course all consultations have to meet the needs of all within society so make sure you don’t rely on this form of communication, as not everyone has a computer, or understands social media. Some villages also still suffer from very slow broadband reach, so ensure your websites do not require too much downloading as this will simply frustrate and anger local residents. Communities will respect
developers who go out of their
18 | Architects Choice |
ArchitectNews.co.uk
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