Consultation

People and planning are inseparable: planning exists to create well-functioning spaces for people, to enable social, economic and environmental priorities to shape places and to protect the natural and cultural heritage for future generations. So planning is intrinsically linked to individuals' homes, sense of place and local identity — and consultation, as the means by which we communicate with people on planning issues, is imperative in maintaining this.

Because people are intrinsic to planning, the profession involves people throughout. But planning is essentially about delivering change, and change is rarely popular. There's also a need to balance complex social and political concerns, and to facilitate mutually beneficial coalitions between stakeholders. Consultation, therefore, is challenging.

In many cases, consultation is required by law. Otherwise the requirement to consult is contained within the Government's National Planning Policy Framework and through local authorities' Statements of Community Involvement.

But consultation doesn't exist only because of formal requirements — consultation can be very beneficial to a scheme's future success. Communication regarding a proposed planning application is usually the first point of contact that a developer has with the local residents likely to be impacted by its proposals. As such it is a very important first step in public relations — both in terms of reputation management and community relations. Run well, a consultation can establish lasting relationships with a local community that will reap wide-ranging benefits throughout the construction and marketing stages and beyond. But if done half-heartedly, consultation will attract criticisms of 'tokensim' and 'sham': a significant blow to an otherwise untarnished reputation.

As with all elements of public relations, a strategic approach is the basis of a successful consultation and this is the approach taken by PNPR. You can find out lots more about PNPR's strategic approach to consultation in my books Public Consultation and Community Involvement in Planning: a twenty-first century guide and Communicating Construction — or contact the team to discuss.