Property PR Hub

Consultation challenges: reducing risk by capitalising on communicating published in CoStar

Consultation can deliver a real insight into a local area, create enduring beneficial relationships and of course provide the information necessary for a comprehensive Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) and ultimately achieve planning success. Yet frequently developers view consultation as a risk – more often than not because of concern that vocal locals may ambush ...
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Working with the Consultation Institute

I am delighted to have been asked to become an Associate of The Consultation Institute (tCI), joining and network of consultants who have considerable expertise in consultation and public engagement. The Consultation Institute fulfils the important role of promoting high-quality public and stakeholder consultation in the public, private and voluntary sectors. Never was there as ...
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Changing levels of involvement in planning

The first decade of the twenty-first century was a new era in which individuals were given the opportunity to become more active, with significantly more control whether as a purchaser, a customer or a commentator. This was largely due to increasingly interactive internet-based communications but also brought about through growing customer choice (for example in ...
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Public Consultation and Community Involvement in Planning: advance notification of publication

My book, Public Consultation and Community Involvement in Planning: a twenty-first century guide will be published by Routledge in July 2017. The twenty-first century has seen significant changes in consultation and community involvement in planning. Changes to the environment in which community engagement exists include an increased legal requirement to consult; a renewed focus on ...
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Monitoring a consultation – to what extent should the development team get involved?

In some cases, the consultors’ voice is rarely heard in the discussions; in others clarifying the messages and stimulating the dialogue will be necessary to ensure an effective consultation. Determining to what extent monitoring should become involvement depends upon the following: Whether the consultation is successfully meeting the consultation objectives or whether intervention would ensure ...
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Issues analysis in consultation

It pays dividends for those running a consultation to have as clear as possible an understanding of the issues that will effect it before the consultation begins. In communications theory, an issue is usually described as, ‘an unsettled subject ready for debate or discussion’.  In a development consultation, this typically includes concerns about the site, ...
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Considering anonymity in consultation

During the early stages of a consultation, when a strategy is put in place to determine the direction of the project, it will be necessary to consider whether you will allow people to respond anonymously. While anonymity has been shown to enable people to put forward their viewpoint without fear of repercussion, it could be ...
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Community relations during construction

It goes without saying that local residents will be more positively engaged with a development team and less critical of it if their locality is kept clean and safe, and that they are provided with timely and adequate information should their daily lives be disrupted. The following tactics are all regarded as good practice in ...
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Asking the right questions

What are the ‘right’ questions to ask in a consultation on a development proposal? Unsurprisingly, there is no ‘right’ answer!  Consultation can range from an issues-based exercise which encourages a wide range of ideas from its audience, to a referendum which invites residents to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to a single idea.  Ideally a consultation ...