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Assessing potential use of social media in consultation
June 22, 2017 10:54 am Leave a Comment
Facebook or Twitter, or a combination of both? The various forms of social media available offer varying benefit and drawbacks.

The following is a comparison of the roles and functionality of Facebook and Twitter from the point of view of public consultation – intended to help you determine the best form of social media for your project.

BENEFITS
Both
• Speed – a Twitter profile, Facebook Group or Page can be set up in minutes and all information posted will be communicated immediately.
• Expense – time is the only cost, (though may be excessive if the messages do not naturally accumulate interest)
• Popular with young people, providing the opportunity to encourage them to spread the message within their specific communities
• Information posted appears immediately in users’ Facebook / Twitter feeds – information will be received without the user specifically accessing the relevant website.
• The emerging use of location tags enables a level of local dialogue not previously possible.
• A single message can quickly gather interest if ‘liked’, ‘shared’ or ‘retweeted’.
• The use of Facebook and Twitter widgets on existing websites or blogs is a quick and effective means of drawing potential users to the page.
• Ability to communicate both in a public group or one to one.

Facebook
• Facebook advertising enables a message to be targeted to a specific demographic and geographic area.
• Ability to form a ‘group’ of those interested in a scheme and keep them updated through their chosen means of communication.
• It is possible to ascertain levels of support by encouraging ‘likes’ for either specific ideas or the project as a whole
• Posting in specific interest group enables the message to spread through communities of interest.
• Messages can be spread effectively by targeting those likely to share an interest in the scheme by messaging them or posting on their walls.

Twitter
• Hashtags (#) enable the consultor to join an existing conversation simply by using the hashtag before the key words.
• Live tweeting, such as at a consultation event or Council meeting, can draw a wide audience (both those attending the event and those unable to do so) and introduce a new level of dialogue.

FUNCTIONALITY
Both
• Post news
• Post polls
• Post images
• Post videos
• Initiate online forums

Facebook
• Arrange events

Twitter
• Connect into existing discussions by using the hashtag (#)

LIMITATIONS
Both:
• Requires user to have, or to create, a Facebook or Twitter profile.
• The platform remains the property of Facebook / Twitter and as such could change without prior notice.
• Analysis is limited to Facebook / Twitter’s standard analytics which does provide the desired information – for example in relation to the location of those commenting. Although good diagnostic tools area available they fail to provide the information necessary for a consultation report and there are no easy means of combining research from Twitter and Facebook, let alone collating this information alongside the more sophisticated level of demographic / geographic data available through a dedicated consultation website.

Facebook
• Facebook pages do not rank highly in Google searches and therefore it is difficult for potential consultees to find a relevant Facebook Page of Group through a generic search.

Twitter
• The content of tweets is restricted by the 140 character limit.

BEST USED FOR
Both
• Consultations by organisations which already have a strong Facebook / Twitter presence and therefore the opportunity to build on existing support

Facebook
• Building interest within existing Facebook communities.

Twitter
• Short calls to action.

Read more in Public Consultation and Community Involvement in Planning: a twenty-first century guide – published by Routledge on 10 July 2017. Please email Penny to receive notification of its publication.
Issues analysis in consultation
January 4, 2017 7:39 am Leave a Comment
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, the proposals, or the impact of development more generally.

Identifying issues enables the development team to fully understand the context of the consultation responses and, importantly, to address any misapprehensions. It is inevitable that development consultations will involve emotive and potentially divisive issues. Development on green fields, social housing and increased pressure on existing resources (roads, healthcare, and education) frequently give rise to debate. Their potential impact, whether realistic or simply perceived, should not be overlooked as it is necessary for the development team to respond to these issues when required, without delay, contradiction or confusion.

At the start of the consultation I would suggest putting in place an issues or Frequently Asked Questions document for use within the development team. This sets out each of the issues likely to arise alongside the agreed response. The document must be flexible, as issues will change during the course of the project and new themes will develop as new topics are discussed. Others may fall away as the community becomes reassured of the developer’s approach and misapprehensions are resolved.

Consider the merits of making the document publicly available. Initially it might seem idiotic to air contentious issues that no-one has brought up. Yet. But what if people are thinking about those issues, discussing them on the street and on closed Facebook pages, and drawing the wrong conclusions in doing so? An issues database or FAQ is a great way to stop misapprehensions from developing, and it also shows the developer to be truly committed to transparency in consultation – something which will reap benefits in the future.

Penny Norton

Penny’s book Public Consultation and Community Involvement in Planning: a twenty-first century guide is published by Routledge in June 2017. Please email Penny to receive notification of its publication.
Engaging with local residents during construction
July 12, 2016 1:00 pm Leave a Comment
Construction can be a difficult time for developers and the neighbourhoods in which they are working. As my previous blog has shown, there is a lot that can be done to mitigate the impacts of construction. But a more proactive approach can make the difference between good and bad relations with a local community.

Education and employment

Development teams frequently use education as a means of reaching stakeholders both during the planning stages and beyond. Working with schools reaches not just children, but their families too, often within a very specific geographic area. Similarly, developers and construction companies have skills which can be of use to the wider community and this too can help develop positive relationships with the site’s neighbours.

Through these initiatives, the development team is able to better understand its local community and in doing so, address local issues, grow local businesses and provide skills training to help regenerate; develop community cohesion; continue to consult, where appropriate, on the details of the scheme; and create interest in the development – attracting workers, shoppers and residents.

Environmental initiatives

In recognition that a new development may have, albeit only in the eyes of a few, a negative impact on the fabric of a neighbourhood, developers frequently make environmental improvements to a neighbourhood. Typically this involves developing a nature reserve, creating the means by which endangered species can be protected (bat boxes are common) or making a contribution to a local park or woodland

The arts

Using the arts as a form of community engagement enables the community to work collaboratively on a process which is creative, fun and can be directly relevant to the development itself; and in can provide a positive experience in the process and result in a product which endures and provides a long term reminder of the collaboration. The involvement of a community arts worker or professional artist can provide a helpful bridge between the developer and the community, and the process can create a sense of ownership in the new development.

Arts work can take various forms, encompassing visual and performance arts; permanent or temporary; a product by or for the community. The resulting piece is often inspired by the architecture of the new development, or may link to the site’s previous use.

Sponsorship, support and sponsorship-in-kind

The variety of skills that make up the construction and development team have a great deal to offer the local community. Sometimes a seemingly simple activity such as providing the use of the landscaping team to overhaul a pocket park, or members of the construction team to rebuild a brick wall at a local school will present an excellent opportunity to forge links with the local community. Sometimes this might involve skills sharing – teaching jobless young people the skills of gardening or brick-laying, or offering talks about careers in construction at a further education college.

Sponsorship too is popular. A developer or construction company will often provide a new kit for a local sports team which provides both an opportunity to meet local residents in a non-adversarial context and to gain brand recognition at football matches and in the local media.

Initiatives such as these can have multiple benefits – not only in mitigating the impact of construction but to reputation, corporate social responsibility and the long term success of the new development.

Penny Norton

Penny’s book Public Consultation and Community Involvement in Planning: a twenty-first century guide is published by Routledge in June 2017. Please email Penny to receive notification of its publication.
Considering anonymity in consultation
June 8, 2016 12:28 pm Leave a Comment
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 argued that anonymous results cannot be verified at the evaluation stage and therefore carry little weight.

Consider the following factors when making the decision:

Arguments in favour
- Respondents are more likely to express their views without fear of repercussions
- Breaks down power relations
- Frees up individual expression
- Removes bias
- The argument can be focused on the content of the discussion without prejudice
- Undermines collaboration
Arguments against
- A consultation report carries more value if comments can be attributed
- An individual should be prepared to ‘own’ his / her comments
- People are more likely to be dishonest when unidentifiable, or to use a forum to praise themselves
- Individuals may be able to put forward their views on numerous occasions by using different log-ins
- Anonymous contributions lack demographic data, which can be very valuable in a consultation
- De-personalises comment
Penny Norton

Penny’s book Public Consultation and Community Involvement in Planning: a twenty-first century guide is published by Routledge in June 2017. Please email Penny to receive notification of its publication.
Community relations during construction
May 27, 2016 9:25 am Leave a Comment
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 overseeing community relations:
- The appointment of a community liaison officer is an excellent starting point as this ensures a single point of contact for local residents, a co-ordinated and consistent approach. In some cases, this role may be taken on by a Construction Impacts Group or development forum.
- Newsletters, emails, a community relations website and social media, telephone helplines and exhibitions in local community centres have found to be useful in imparting information.
- Face-to-face and small community group meetings enable the development / construction team to speak directly with those individuals affected and respond to their concerns.
- Community liaison panels are a more formal means by which the development team can understand residents’ concerns, but are smaller and more manageable than public meetings.
- A simple means of sharing news about the development is to provide plastic windows in hoardings, enabling local residents to view progress on site. This can also be provided through the use of a webcam or series of photographs, hosted on a website or social media page.
- Other engaging ideas used to encourage local residents to engage with the development team include the creation of community reporters (local people given the opportunity to interview the development team and report back to the community in the form of a newspaper or blog) and a regular drop-in café to encourage direct communication between the construction team and community.
- The local media can be a useful means of providing updates to the wider community and also establishing a positive relationship with a local journalist which can be useful in the case of complaints.
- The development team also has the opportunity to involve the community in events, such as ‘topping out’ a significant building, opening a play area or aspect of infrastructure.
Community relations is a vital component of development and one which should flow naturally from a well-run planning consultation.

Successful community relations requires a strategic and principled approach, early engagement and a realistic and appropriate set of tactics. Whether you’re communicating directly with residents to mitigate future problems or putting in place positive programmes of engagement, there is a wide variety of tactics available.

Penny Norton

Penny’s book Public Consultation and Community Involvement in Planning: a twenty-first century guide is published by Routledge in June 2017. Please email Penny to receive notification of its publication.
Asking the right questions
May 25, 2016 6:02 am Leave a Comment
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 will include both open and closed questions.

Depending on the nature of the consultation, fully open questions such as ‘What do you think the development should comprise?’ can give rise to unrealistic answers or angry rants. It is often more helpful, both for the individual and the exercise, to provide guidance which focuses the mind and in doing so generates more meaningful responses. Issues-based consultations sometimes use the ‘dilemma’ approach: one that puts the consultee in the position of the consultor and in doing so helps them to make a more informed choice. For example, rather than asking the question ‘What do you want to see on this land?’ the dilemma approach would state, ‘We are required to provide between 800-1,000 homes and three commercial units on this site. Where do you feel the commercial units could be situated? What sized homes are most needed in the neighbourhood? Do you agree that the 30% housing association homes should be distributed evenly throughout the development?’ the alternative approach – seeing the proposal from local residents’ point of view – can also help address underlying negativity. For example, a telecoms company invariably faced with the comment, ‘I don’t want that mobile phone mast obscuring my view’, may ask questions relating to need at an early stage, starting with the question ‘Is your mobile phone coverage satisfactory?’

A decision must be taken as to whether to request demographic data. Most consultations will benefit from a detailed understanding of their respondents. In a site-specific development it is extremely useful to understand where people live and take this into account in relation to their response. Information relating to age, gender and employment status can also benefit analysis, but can be off putting. Rarely is it worth asking for demographic information if it deters a significant number of potential respondents. A tried and tested technique is to seek this information at the end of the process, rather than early on. It is also advised to make the provision of personal information voluntary, while both explaining its benefits reassuring respondents that the information will remain confidential and not used for any other purpose. The Information Commissioner’s Office provides useful information about handling personal data and anyone running a consultation should consider registering under the 1998 Data Protection Act.

While data which lacks user information lacks validity, an anonymous contribution is usually more valid than none. Online consultation demonstrates that anonymity can benefit a consultation in removing hierarchies. In an online consultation conducted by ConsultOnline 54% of those taking part in the consultation chose a username which bore no resemblance to their actual name, yet names, addresses and postcodes were supplied for the registration process. The lack of these comments would have been detrimental to the consultation, and while respondents were reassured that their personal details would not be made public, the development team had access to the demographic data necessary to create an excellent consultation report.

Ideally, a consultation should include a mixture of qualitative and quantitative tactics which, in turn, produce both qualitative and quantitative data. Questions should be closely aimed to the objectives of the consultation and most importantly, questions should only be asked if their responses can impact on the proposals.

Penny Norton

Penny’s book Public Consultation and Community Involvement in Planning: a twenty-first century guide is published by Routledge in June 2017. Please email Penny to receive notification of its publication.
White paper – Online Consultation and Perceived Risk
May 20, 2016 11:36 am Leave a Comment
To receive our white paper, Online Consultation and Perceived Risk please email ConsultOnline
White paper – Tackling Apathy in Consultation
11:35 am Leave a Comment
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White Paper – Why choose online consultation?
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To receive our white paper Why choose online consultation? please email ConsultOnline
The consultation mandate
May 19, 2016 1:32 pm Leave a Comment
Have you ever responded to a development consultation where there is a clear consultation mandate in place? As a local resident, have you been presented with a document which sets out who the consultation is for, what it’s about, what it intends to achieve, how the results will be used and how you’ll be informed of the result?

Many of us probably haven’t been on the receiving end of a consultation which is so clear, so open and honest and so committed to the local residents involved. This is a shame, as there’s no reason why a developer shouldn’t put this in place, as it hugely benefits ongoing community relations as I’ve found.

A consultation mandate is simply a distillation of the consultation strategy for use by local residents. As the document will be read by a wide variety of people in a wide variety of circumstances, it is imperative that it is clear and concise, using plain language and a simple, accessible form.

Typically, a consultation mandate will include the following information:
- The organisation running the consultation
- The target audience
- The aims and objectives of the consultation
- The subject for discussion
- Potential impact of consultation
- The organisation initiating the change post-consultation
- Timings
Try it out! Providing you state that the document is flexible and publish any updates on the consultation website, there’s nothing to lose.

Penny Norton

Penny’s book Public Consultation and Community Involvement in Planning: a twenty-first century guide is published by Routledge in June 2017. Please email Penny to receive notification of its publication.
White paper – Tackling Apathy in Consultation
April 29, 2016 11:08 am Leave a Comment
To receive our white paper, Tackling Apathy in Consultation please email ConsultOnline
Effective online consultation – part 3: responsiveness
April 1, 2016 1:38 pm Leave a Comment
Online consultation has the huge benefit of being widely accessible and eliciting responses where they may not have otherwise been available. But the good consultation is two-way consultation: encouraging a response and ignoring it does not constitute good consultation.

The following suggestions will help to create a responsive consultation, without making it too arduous:

Be as responsive as is feasible
- Provide a means for respondents to contact a person if necessary – ideally both by email and phone.
- Determine in advance whether you’ll interact on public forums – and if so, ensure that the role is one of facilitation, not refereeing.
- Ensure that all those posting / responding on behalf of the consultation do so with the same understanding.
- Respond promptly.
- Keep registered users updated – via email, RSS, SMS or social media.
Remember that communication online is immediate and 24/7
- Commit to regular posting. Social media posts can be scheduled via a range of dashboard applications such as TweetDeck and Hootsuite.
- Keep the site fresh and up to date.
- Check links regularly.
- Update the site regularly.
Monitor constantly
- Set up monitoring from Day One. This may be both automatic (for bad language / spam) but should not be exclusively so.
- If you have to remove a post, let the individual know and give them an opportunity to replace it.
- Avoid vetting comments as this leads to mistrust of the consultation.
- Provide links to offline consultation, allowing respondents to take part both online and offline.
Always remember that in two-way communication, every comment deserves a response.

Penny Norton

Penny’s book Public Consultation and Community Involvement in Planning: a twenty-first century guide is published by Routledge in June 2017. Please email Penny to receive notification of its publication.
Selecting tactics
March 31, 2016 1:37 pm Leave a Comment
There are literally 100s of consultation tactics and with the advent of online consultation that list is growing by the day.

So here are some ideas to help you select the most appropriate tactics for your consultation.

Accessibility – do the tactics selected give all sections of the community an opportunity to comment?
- Analysis – consider the outputs required for a convincing consultation report, including achieving a balance of qualitative and quantitative responses
- Anonymity – consider the benefits and drawbacks in relation to the consultation’s objectives
- Appeal – make it fun
- Balance innovation and more established methods
- Cost – do the chosen tactics fall within the consultation budget?
- Ease – avoid requesting unnecessary information or making it difficult for individuals to respond
- Mix old and new means of communication to appeal to the various demographic groups within the community
- Past successes – consider what has worked well in the past, or discuss successful local consultations with the local authority and local groups
- Time – assume no prior knowledge; give people time to digest information
- Variety – don’t rely on just one method: different tactics appeal to different people
Bear in mind that too many consultation tactics can be as harmful as too few – not only because it can confuse the audience, but because evaluation becomes a nightmare! Following these suggestions will, I hope, enable you to pick the right tactics for your consultation.

Penny Norton

Penny’s book Public Consultation and Community Involvement in Planning: a twenty-first century guide is published by Routledge in June 2017. Please email Penny to receive notification of its publication.
Media relations in consultation
March 23, 2016 1:34 pm Leave a Comment
There is an assumption that the media, specifically local newspapers, are naturally anti-development, that a newspaper will always champion the voice of the local resident over that of a corporate entity, and that bad news is more likely to make the headlines than good news. There is some truth in this, but this does not justify developers failing to engage with journalists.

As with local residents, positive relationships with the media are based on provision of information and a positive, open and transparent approach.

A shocking proportion of developers opt not to communicate with the local media in the early stages of consultation, entering into dialogue only (and often reluctantly) when a negative issue has been brought to the attention of the media. Frequently a negative, unbalanced and perhaps inaccurate story will have run by this stage, causing substantial damage both to the consultation and the reputation of its partners more generally.

The recommended approach is to contact the local newspaper at the early stages of the consultation: use the consultation mandate to explain the process and remit of the consultation, ensure that the local media is fully furnished with the facts and the positive messages and has contact details for an appropriate individual in the case of future questions. The result of this approach is typically a positive story in the first instance, and a more balanced story should local residents approach the newspaper with concerns about the consultation or development proposals. The local newspaper can also be used to publicise consultation events both in print and online and perhaps even host the consultation survey.

Albeit a one-way tactic, local media relations represents an excellent opportunity to communicate with a wide audience. And thanks to the proliferation of local newspaper websites (now more numerous than those newspapers producing a print version) this is changing: opportunities exist to drive readers to the consultation website, or to encourage discussion via a local newspaper blog or social media page and in doing so a once static, asymmetrical means of communication becomes an interactive tool.

Penny Norton

Penny’s book Public Consultation and Community Involvement in Planning: a twenty-first century guide is published by Routledge in June 2017. Please email Penny to receive notification of its publication.
Effective online consultation – part 2: content
March 22, 2016 1:32 pm Leave a Comment
Online consultation is only effective when its content is effective. This blog provides some suggestions for creating great content.

Create compelling and useful content
- Create an enticing home page. Consider the use of video as an icebreaker.
- Bear mind that people have shorter attention spans online. Write content specifically for the website: do not be tempted to simply install the content of a document or leaflet online (although there is no harm in including these documents in a document library).
- Ensure that text is crisp and clear at all times.
- Break substantial information into manageable chunks.
- Ensure that information presented in a variety of different ways.
- Provide enough information to enable people to make an informed response.
- Create content that is suitably compelling for people to engage with and share.
- Use images, illustrations, maps, videos and slideshows to bring the content to life.
- Link surveys and forums to background information to ensure that those responding are adequately informed.
- Provide ample visual material. Mapping can enable residents to zoom in on an areas in detail and add text, video and comment.
- Consider the use of slider bars. This is a visual and effective means of determining relative levels. It works well in budget setting but could also be an engaging and useful tool for community input in landscape design or other decisions.
Blog: a powerful way to provide regular updates and invite responses
- Post regularly and on behalf of various members of the development team but determine how comment on blogs will be fed into the analysis prior to permitting comment.
- Consider allowing members of the community such as representatives of a stakeholder engagement group to blog.
- Ensure that those who blog on behalf of the development team understand the key messages and the scope of the consultation.
Use information to demonstrate transparency
- Document libraries can be used to hold complex planning documents such as relevant local planning policies, or at the end of the process, the documents which make up the planning application.
- Use hyperlinks to enable consultees to access extensive information if they choose to do so (ensuring that the hyperlink opens a new window rather than taking the residents’ attention away from the consultation website).
Engage via online forums
- Use online forums to invite comment and discussion on a range of issues.
- Determine initially to what extent the development team will interact and if so, whether to do so in a corporate character or individual’s name.
- If taking part in online forums aim to facilitate, but avoid arguing at all costs.
Use issues ranking to gain statistical results
- Put in place a mechanism whereby residents can select a preferred option from a list of choices, and second and subsequent lists are selected by routing software in relation to the initial choice.
Ensure consistency throughout the consultation
- Ensure that the online content is in keeping with offline content – this is particularly appropriate if the two parts of the project are being run by different teams.
- Ensure that messages are consistent throughout the website and the wider consultation.
Focus on results
- Avoid the temptation to ask open questions which may deliver results which are difficult to monitor and analyse.
- Ensure that the consultation website provides a means of quickly extracting information from the website for reporting and evaluation.
Finally, remember that the internet is much more than the means of publishing a document online. The web provides the opportunity for genuine two-way dialogue, the stuff that good consultations are made of. Make the most of that opportunity!

Penny Norton

Penny’s book Public Consultation and Community Involvement in Planning: a twenty-first century guide is published by Routledge in June 2017. Please email Penny to receive notification of its publication.
Effective online consultation – part 1: planning
March 21, 2016 1:27 pm Leave a Comment
Planning is key to all good consultations. But I’ve learnt from the many online consultations that I’ve run that this is all the more so in online consultation due to the speed with which information can spread across the internet and the quantity of responses that can be received.

So it’s worth bearing in mind the following advice in advance of launching a consultation:

Plan
- Have a content plan in place – but be flexible.
- Watch and listen – determine what works best for the particular consultation, when to post and lengths of posts. Google Analytics is a very helpful tool for understanding user patterns.
Research
- Use stakeholder research and analysis to gain an understanding of the likely take-up.
Use a consultation mandate to establish aims and objectives and guidance on usage
- Ensure that the consultation mandate is displayed prominently – or that its content is expressed clearly.
- Put rules for engagement in place via a user guide.
- Communicate the purpose and passage of the consultation. Make the timeline clear and adhere to it where at all possible; where this is not possible, ensure that the audience is fully informed.
- Be realistic about how quickly you can respond to questions raised online and communicate your commitment to respond at the start of the consultation.
Prioritise access
- Avoid making the online consultation too complicated: always consider the less digitally aware when drafting web content and functionality.
- Consider the benefits of making all (or specific) polls and forums available only to local residents by requiring that they register using a postal address. The importance of registration is three-fold:
  - The proposed development will have a greater impact on those in a specific local area, and so it is important that local residents are given a priority in shaping the proposals.
  - The more detailed the information from the local community, the more value it has. If a developer understands not only what the community feels, but where certain views originate geographically, results are more valid.
  - The consultation report will have added validity if responses can be identified by individual and location.
- Bear in mind that registration can deter involvement. If using a registration process, ensure that this is quick and simple, and doesn’t demand so much information as to be off-putting.
- Let people register and get started quickly. Only those with a strong objection to a proposal will persist with an onerous registration process.
Select tactics with careful consideration
- Use a variety of online tactics providing the tactics are in line with the consultation objectives and deliver meaningful results.
- Aim to use a combination of qualitative and quantitative tactics online.
- Ensure that all tactics, where possible, include an opportunity to respond – if only linking to a Contact Us page.
Remember that if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. And so it follows that if you succeed in planning, you stand a much greater chance of succeeding!

Penny Norton

Penny’s book Public Consultation and Community Involvement in Planning: a twenty-first century guide is published by Routledge in June 2017. Please email Penny to receive notification of its publication.
Does a consultation need a strategy?
March 19, 2016 1:25 pm Leave a Comment
The simple answer, from my point of view is yes – all good consultations will have a consultation strategy.

A strategy puts in place clear aims and objectives which ensure that the consultation team shares values, expectations and understanding. It also ensures that a wide range of relevant factors are identified at the start of the process and that those are taken into consideration as the consultation progresses. The logical sequence of a strategy, however wide-ranging the engagement activities, provides consistency and ensures that all members of the team approach the consultation with shared objectives.

Formulating a strategy need not require substantial understanding of communications theory or days spent grafting and crafting. And the benefits are numerous. In many planning applications – such as NSIPs or those carried out by a public body – a clearly defined strategy is required by law. This alone speaks volumes as to its importance. Although a strategy may not be a legal requirement in other planning applications, most require a consultation report which details the approach taken, an evaluation of the results and the future direction of the project based on consultation responses and its success is dependent on there being a coherent strategy.

Transparency – always an important characteristic of consultation – is another benefit of a strategic approach. Without it, the launch of a consultation may be met with confusion. It is recommended that, at the implementation of a consultation, the strategy is communicated in a consultation mandate which sets out the vision, objectives and structure of a consultation and shows how results will be received, analysed and acted upon. This can avoid confusion among third parties, whether special interest groups, local residents, statutory consultees or public bodies.

A strategic approach also allows for resources – whether financial, human or time – to be allocated and planned, thus ensuring that the consultation is run efficiently.

A common mistake in planning, often despite better intentions, is for a strategy to become a retrospective document: the team launches into a series of consultation tactics (perhaps based on past practice, experience or recommendation) results are collated, and then in a need to create a meaningful consultation report, a ‘strategy’ is drafted to justify the approach.

Worse still, and all too common to the industry, is to ‘predict and provide’ (to make assumptions about what a development should comprise and put the proposals in place with little or no consultation); ‘plan, announce and defend’ (to put in place a development proposal, inform local residents and attempt to counter any negative sentiment) or to ‘plan, monitor, manage’ (to put in place a development proposal, gather opinion and then attempt to promote only the positive -opinion). Each of these examples is a distinctly top-down approach and makes scant use of consultation. Of course developments require varying levels of public consultation but those which are seen to be avoiding any meaningful dialogue are setting themselves up for failure.

If it be said that strategy is a waste of time, it is only in the case of a retrospective or tokenistic ‘strategy’ that this is true.

Penny Norton

Penny’s book Public Consultation and Community Involvement in Planning: a twenty-first century guide is published by Routledge in June 2017. Please email Penny to receive notification of its publication.
White Paper – Corporate Social Responsibility for Developers
March 16, 2016 11:03 am Leave a Comment
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Ethics in consultation
March 9, 2016 2:57 pm Leave a Comment
All too often, consultation is mentioned in relation to a ‘sham’ or a ‘tick box’ exercise and references made to ‘spin’ and ‘persuasion’.

I have spent some time thinking about standards of excellence in consultation and have come to the conclusion that best practice consultation is all of the following:

Symmetrical

A good consultation aims to achieve a symmetrical flow of information between the consultor and the consultee, as opposed to bombarding the community with information and paying little attention to responses.

Responsive

The day of informing the public on a proposal and collating results at the end of the process is over. Today’s consultations are focussed on ongoing engagement, allowing development proposals to evolve in line with feedback and the process to adapt where necessary.

Positive consultation responses are generated by positive sentiment. An ability to understand what motivates the stakeholder group and to communicate with them in the way in which they feel most comfortable is crucial.

Genuine

Honesty is at the root of all good consultations. Transparency and openness should be present throughout – from setting of realistic objectives, communicating the purpose of the consultation, drawing up agendas for discussion, reporting events and the final feedback. The consultation should focus on excellence in communication and avoid any association with spin.

Information should be shared openly, especially documents which are material to the determination and the results.

Similarly, a consultation outcome should never be pre-determined. Sometimes the outcome will differ from that which was expected, let alone intended. Sometimes factors will come to light which disagree with the outcome. The final consultation report should identify such issues and explain why the final decision did not take them into account.

Engaging

A positive approach is imperative: a quality process will result in a quality outcome. An engaging consultation might mean fun to some stakeholders, inspiration to others, regular and consistent communication others. The consultation strategy must be mindful of the various groups that make up the community and seek to provide relevant and appealing forms of engagement.

A successful consultation is one which results in constructive relationships with the local community. Formal partnerships, such as with potential occupiers of community buildings or with local enterprise groups, are often of substantial benefit, both during the consultation and during the construction phase.

Consultation should be clear on every level, from the language used to the communication of the aims and objectives. A consultation report provides an ideal opportunity to clarify those consulted, the information gained and the impact upon the final scheme.

Timely

Early engagement is good engagement. A consultation should allow ample time to develop the early stages of the strategy, to engage fully and provide adequate time for responses. The timescale of the consultation should be set out in a document which can be accessed by all.

Informative

A consultation is a learning journey: from informative research, to a comprehensive and a well-reasoned conclusion. Consulting bodies should see themselves as learners rather than to teachers, something which should be apparent in their dealings with stakeholders.

Manages expectations

Expectations within a community are likely to be as varied as the individuals that constitute it. This is best tackled through thorough stakeholder research, not only of information but of feelings and expectations. With a greater understanding expectations, both for the consultation and the proposals, the consultor is better placed to communicate the parameters and prevent disappointment. Care needs to be taken to motivate residents to secure their involvement and realistic expectations.

Accessible

The visibility of those carrying out a consultation is a strong indicator of its likely success. Key members of the consultation team, however senior, should be seen to listen and learn.

Strategic

Ultimately, a good consultation must be well researched, based on firm objectives, structured and designed to produce meaningful analysis and evaluation. The strategy should be well understood within the consultation team and communicated to wider audiences clearly, perhaps in the form of a Consultation Mandate. As with all public relations, a strategic approach which conforms to a set of guiding principles is invariably the best route to success.

Additionally, as a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), I am committed to abide by the CIPR’s Code of Conduct.

Under the principles of the Code, members of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations agree to:
- Maintain the highest standards of professional endeavour, integrity, confidentiality, financial propriety and personal conduct
- Deal honestly and fairly in business with employers, employees, clients, fellow professionals, other professions and the public
- Respect, in their dealings with other people, the legal and regulatory frameworks and codes of all countries where they practise
- Uphold the reputation of, and do nothing that would bring profession into disrepute
- Respect and abide by this Code and related Notes of Guidance issued by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and ensure that others who are accountable to me (e.g. subordinates and sub-contractors) do the same
- Encourage professional training and development among members of the profession in order to raise and maintain professional standards generally.
Much of this is common sense, good manners and responsible business practice. But together, I think the Principles and the Code of Conduct address all of the issues which might cause a consultation to be brought into disrepute and as such might be a useful framework for others running public consultations.
Community relations during construction – working effectively with residents
March 2, 2016 10:02 am Leave a Comment
There are many different facets to community relations during construction which will be addressed in later blogs. This first blog on the subject concerns the vital role of resident liaison.

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 overseeing community relations:
- The appointment of a community liaison officer is an excellent starting point as this ensures a single point of contact for local residents, a co-ordinated and consistent approach.
- In some cases, this role may be taken on by a Construction Impacts Group or development forum.
- Newsletters, emails, a community relations website and social media, telephone helplines and exhibitions in local community centres have found to be useful in imparting information.
- Face to face and small community group meetings are helpful to speak directly with those individuals affected and respond to their concerns.
- Community liaison panels are a more formal means by which the development team can understand residents’ concerns, but are smaller and more manageable than public meetings.
- A simple means of sharing news about the development is to provide plastic windows in hoardings, enabling local residents to view progress on site. This can also be provided through the use of a webcam or series of photographs, hosted on a website or social media page.
- Other engaging ideas used to encourage local residents to engage with the development team include the creation of community reporters – local people given the opportunity to interview the development team and report back to the community in the form of a newspaper or blog and a regular drop-in café with the incentive of free cake, to encourage direct communication between the construction team and community.
- The local media can be a useful means of providing updates to the wider community and also establishing a positive relationship with a local journalist which can be useful in the case of complaints.
- The development team also has the opportunity to provide a series of events, such as ‘topping out’ a significant building, opening a play area or aspect of infrastructure.
PNPR, through its new brand CommunitiesOnline, recently set up a community relations website for Essential Living’s Berkshire House scheme in Maidenhead.

Essential Living had previously carried out a comprehensive pre-planning consultation using ConsultOnline to run an online consultation alongside an offline consultation.

When planning consent was granted and construction commenced on site, a community relations website was put in place which provides substantial information about the scheme, its design, the construction timetable, the build-to-rent sector , facilities for residents, the site’s history and the team. Construction updates, with images of the development in progress, are posted regularly and as required, and users are invited to register both for construction updates via email and for future lettings availability. Quick links on each page provided help with navigation, while links to Facebook, Twitter and Google + encouraged users to share information.

The website was promoted using the social media accounts set up for the planning consultation and is monitored using Google Analytics.

It’s early days for the Berkshire House website, but there is every indication that this is viewed a very positive initiative in forging a good relationship with the local community.

Penny Norton

Penny’s book Public Consultation and Community Involvement in Planning: a twenty-first century guide is published by Routledge in June 2017. Please email Penny to receive notification of its publication.
White Paper – Consultation Tactics – Three Staple Ingredients
February 15, 2016 11:02 am Leave a Comment
To receive our white paper, Consultation Tactics – Three Staple Ingredients please email ConsultOnline
Changing tactics in consultation
February 10, 2016 10:07 am Leave a Comment
In researching and writing my book 21st Century Consultation and Community Engagement: A Guide for Developers, Planners and Local Authorities, I’ve been looking into the ever increasing number of consultation tactics that exist – getting on for 300, I think!

Of course many are variations on a theme, but there are some very clear patterns emerging:
- The increased use of qualitative, as opposed to quantitative tactics – local authorities don’t just want to know figures and percentages, they want to know about thoughts, ideas and sentiment.
- The demise of the public meeting – something few developers ever enjoyed – and the rise in its place of participative planning – such as Planning for Real, Enquiry by Design
- The importance of early engagement: dialogue on issues as opposed to a ‘tick-box’ for an already complete masterplan. Nick Woolley’s Concerto model is a great example of how early engagement can engage on issues very effectively using both a qualitative and quantitative approach.
- The rapidly growing and exciting toolbox of online consultation tactics – conversation about a development proposal takes place online whether a developer intends it or not; the question is not whether to run an online consultation but how best to interact with existing online conversations in a positive an effective manner.
I could go on – and I will: from January 2017 there will be 100,000 words on the subject, available from all good book shops.

But in the meantime, here are a few thoughts on selecting appropriate consultation tactics:
- Accessibility – do the tactics selected give all sections of the community an opportunity to comment?
- Analysis – consider the outputs required for a convincing consultation report, including achieving a balance of qualitative and quantitative response
- Anonymity – consider the benefits and drawbacks in relation to the consultation’s objectives
- Appeal – make it fun
- Balance innovation and more established methods
- Cost – are the chosen tactics realistic in terms of the consultation budget?
- Different tactics appeal to different people
- Ease – avoid requesting unnecessary information or requesting that a form is posted when an email would be an easier option for most
- Mix old and new means of communication to appeal to the various demographic groups within the community
- Past successes – consider what has worked well in the past, or discuss successful local consultations with the local authority and local groups
- Time – assume no prior knowledge; give people time to digest information
- Variety – don’t rely on just one method: different tactics appeal to different people
White paper – Activism and Negativity its Impact on Consultation
January 20, 2016 10:50 am Leave a Comment
To receive our white paper, Activism and Negativity its Impact on Consultation please email ConsultOnline
Consultation and changing roles
December 10, 2015 12:32 pm Leave a Comment
Having recently completed the first draft of a book on innovation in public consultation, I have interviewed many people in the profession. It was interesting to find that in most cases, public consultations are run by planning consultants, in many cases by PR / consultation specialists but sometimes delegated to junior administrative staff with the online aspects of a consultation looked after by a web team or digital agency.

While all of these individuals have a valid role to play, I am concerned that with the rise of online consultation, consultations are being handed over to those who have excellent technical expertise but lack an understanding of communications and strategy.

The best consultations are invariably those which are based on a strategy. A strategic approach ensures that necessary factors are taken into consideration, establishes direction and ensures that the team responsible approaches the consultation with shared objectives. Engagement activities can be wide-ranging and creative, but the logical sequence of a strategy ensures consistency.

Typically, a consultation strategy will include:
- Pre-consultation dialogue – to involve the community or its representatives in the most effective approach to consultation
- Situational analysis – to fully understand the issues impacting on the consultation, both internal and external
- Stakeholder / publics analysis and research – to ensure that stakeholders are appropriately targeted
- Aims and objectives – to guide those running the consultation and provide a means for evaluation
- Messages – to ensure that consultees understand the remit of the consultation, its objectives and limitations, and to that the consultation team speaks with one voice
- Strategy and tactics – to put in place a methodology for the consultation which is appropriate to its aims and objectives and also to re resources available
- Analysis – to process the results of the consultation
- Evaluation – to demonstrate that the consultation was effective and where necessary to explain any inconsistencies
- Reporting and feedback – to thank consultees for taking part, to demonstrate that their responses have been taken into account and to inform them of the decision taken
The best consultations are based on the type of two-way communication extolled by communications theorists such as Grunig and Dozier in relation to ‘excellent’ public relations. Good consultation is a transparent, symmetrical approach to communication which is organised and methodical.

The most important issue for online consultation is that no matter how good a consultation website, communicating links and encouraging people to take part is imperative and must be constant – perhaps more so with an intangible service such as a website than a series of public exhibitions and meetings. Consultation is a service and not a product. Creating a website for a developer is not consultation: it is promotion and effective communication throughout the process that constitutes consultation, and for this reason, consultation should remain within the domain of the communications professional.

Penny Norton

Penny’s book Public Consultation and Community Involvement in Planning: a twenty-first century guide is published by Routledge in June 2017. Please email Penny to receive notification of its publication.
The future of online consultation
November 17, 2015 7:27 am Leave a Comment
The communications theorist Grunig defined excellence in communication as that which promotes the use of research, dialogue and consultation to manage conflict, improve understanding and build constructive relationships with a wide range of publics.

This seemed a good basis on which to consider the merits of online consultation in theoretical terms. And my analysis (see my earlier blog posts for the full discussion) is that online consultation is more than capable of addressing these principles:
- The internet is by far the most powerful research resource. A substantial proportion of information that is required in researching stakeholder groups and necessary background information is freely and readily available.
- Online consultation allows for real-time dialogue and consultation through a variety of means. Voice recognition, for example, is breaking down barriers and enabling people to communicate online in the way in which suits them best.
- Conflict, or crisis / issues management is frequently managed online. There many instances in which this process moves offline but the internet is probably the single most important tool in managing conflict.
- Creating a constructive relationship is based initially on knowledge, which is best sourced online; similarly relationships can be formed and developed entirely online.
- A wide range of publics is best identified online – initially. The internet may supply up to 90% of the stakeholder information required for a consultation, but the remaining (and very important) element is often best addressed through personal contact.
As communication increasingly moves online, so too will consultation move online, and ConsultOnline projects to date show that online consultation can be successful in practice as well as in theory.

Online consultation cannot replace offline consultation entirely until 100% of any local community is able and confident to communicate online. To some, a screen will never compensate for a human face and for that reason face-to-contact should not be fully abandoned. However, there are many advantages that online consultation has over offline consultation: in many cases it is easier for people to take part, it is time and cost effective, it is clear and uncomplicated, information can be readily available to all and discussions open and visible to all. The opportunities for evaluation are vast and results can be analysed and communicated very effectively.

Ultimately the online consultation can help make consultation fun, and potentially address the serious issue of consultation fatigue. In doing so, managers can increase engagement and increase buy-in from employees / service users, developers can gain a clear mandate for a planning application and many more sectors can benefit.

If you haven’t done so, please see my previous blogs in which online consultation is discussed in more detail, and let me have any thoughts.

Penny Norton

Penny’s book Public Consultation and Community Involvement in Planning: a twenty-first century guide is published by Routledge in June 2017. Please email Penny to receive notification of its publication.
Budgets do matter in online consultation!
October 9, 2015 11:38 am Leave a Comment
Initially I included a section on cost efficiency in my series of blog posts on the principles of best practice in online consultation. Then I questioned whether cost efficiency was a feature of best practice. I determined that saving money in itself is not a measure by which to judge the success of a consultation.

But budgets are not limitless and it would be naïve to assume that efficiencies do not feature in planning a consultation.

Where the quality comes in, is in using resources appropriately. My experience is that online consultation can actually REDUCE the costs of a consultation, while also bringing about great results.

Due to the ConsultOnline template approach, a four month programme together with the comprehensive website and promotion both on and off-line can be considerably cheaper than the cost of a dedicated website alone. An online consultation is roughly ⅓ the cost of an offline consultation. A consultation which uses an online consultation package and ½ of the offline consultation that might have been used previously is just 48% the price of an offline-only consultation.

Local authorities are always very positive about the way in which online consultation can increase engagement. So why not pay less and achieve more?

Penny Norton

Penny’s book Public Consultation and Community Involvement in Planning: a twenty-first century guide is published by Routledge in June 2017. Please email Penny to receive notification of its publication.
The Principles of Best Practice in Online Consultation – Part 4
September 10, 2015 1:01 pm Leave a Comment
In previous blogs I’ve looked at the principles of access and engagement (Part 1) in creating a strong vision; selecting appropriate tactics (Part 2), and timing, truthfulness and transparency in Part 3.

The important principles that remain are responsiveness, reporting / evaluation and communicating feedback.

Reporting, analysis and evaluation

Analysis is perhaps the most important stage of the consultation process: if done well, it will paint a clear picture of the community’s reaction to the proposals and enable the consultor to act accordingly.

Every tactic deployed during the consultation should produce results. These should reflect the depth and breadth of the consultation and so may be available in a range of formats. Ideally, they will be both qualitative and quantitative.

In The Art of Consultation, Rhion Jones and Elizabeth Gammell question the accuracy of online communication:

Not long after the new Scottish Parliament opened, we were shown around and during the visits introduced to several innovations, one of which was the eDiscussion forum. What had been the most intense debate? we asked. Proudly we were told that the subject of wind farms had attracted 400-plus postings, a source of considerable satisfaction to shoe who had managed this process. Suitably impressed, we enquired whether this was 200 people who had each posted twice, or maybe only twenty who had posted twenty times each. Alas, no-one knew.

In New Techniques for Risk Management in Planning and Public Consultation, a booklet that I edited for Field Fisher Waterhouse in 2010, David Naylor voices a similar concern a legal perspective:

Various issues need to be considered regarding the management of participation. For example, can anyone who is interested participate? Or is there a need to restrict participation – for example only to those who can show that they fall within a category of persons affected by the proposals? If so, how does the developer or local authority vet / administer a scheme designed to ensure that only permitted participants participate? And how do they ensure that appropriate weight is attributed to people’s input?

The same is true of offline communication, however, and the techniques deployed by ConsultOnline ensure, to the greatest possible extent, that all contributions are legitimate. It does this by requesting full contact details of all respondents and using Google Analytics to provide geographic and demographic data.

Five years after these comments were made, I believe that online consultation has a considerable advantage over offline consultation because of its ability to analyse results quickly, regularly, efficiently and accurately. The standard report details statistical information on website usage, user demographics, an analysis of the means by which users reached the website, specific devices / platforms used, the way in which the website has been used, reports from polls and forums and FAQs received, and an analysis of interaction via social media.

As with any strategic communication, effective evaluation is vital in public consultation. Not only does this benefit future, or ongoing consultations, but it serves the important purpose of demonstrating whether the consultation was effective, which may be necessary if the results present anomalies.

Online communication can be very effectively monitored and evaluated. Reporting is of an extremely high standard, comprising day-by-day website usage; average session times and bounce rates; analysis of the most popular pages; demographic information in relation to location, gender, age and interest; analysis of how people are reaching the website; results per poll / forum / survey / blog comment; maps to depict the location of respondents.

ConsultOnline collates statistical information both for feedback to the client and also for comparison with other project to benefit product development.

Communicate feedback effectively

According to the ONS, If you asked experienced consultees to name the single most unsatisfactory aspect to their experience of public sector consultations, they would reply in one word – ‘feedback’. We suspect that private sector exercises would suffer a similar fate.

Feedback to consultees (and in some cases, regulatory bodies) is vital and the link between the feedback received and the decisions taken should be clear.

Not only should feedback deliver the results of the consultation but is the perfect vehicle to demonstrate the success of the consultation, to publically thank the consultees and to reinforce the consultor’s commitment excellent consultation.

Communicating feedback, and in particular the decisions taken as a result of that information, is crucial but is frequently over-looked.

A consultation website provides an ideal means for communicating this information. ConsultOnline not only posts consultation results online, but also uses its Facebook and Twitter profiles to broadcast the message, directing users to the consultation website. Additionally database of those users who requested an alert when the consultation website was updated are altered to the report being posted online.

This is my final post in the series of blogs on how the principles of best practice in communication can be applied to online consultation. If you haven’t already seen it, please have a look at Scotch Corner Designer Village and let me have any feedback both on ConsultOnline and on these blogs.

Penny Norton

Penny’s book Public Consultation and Community Involvement in Planning: a twenty-first century guide is published by Routledge in June 2017. Please email Penny to receive notification of its publication.
The Principles of Best Practice in Online Consultation – Part 3
July 10, 2015 12:34 pm Leave a Comment
Parts 1 & 2 of this series of blog posts addressed the principles of access and engagement, creating a strong vision and selecting appropriate tactics. But there are many more key principles of good consultation…

Appropriate timing

As with any strategically planned communication, timing is crucial. Consultation should be planned within timescales that allow for consultees to be informed and respond, and results collated, analysed and considered prior to a decision being made. Consultors should avoid times when people are likely to be away such as during school and religious holidays.

This story from a local newspaper demonstrates that consultations can be deficient in both the time of day and the notice given:

OnTheWight has been informed that residents in Gunville are furious that a planning consultation meeting is planned to be held during the working day, when many residents are unable to attend. Planning notices have been placed on lampposts in the Gunville area for a proposed development at the rear of Alvington Manor View and a meeting has been called for today, Monday 15th September, between 12-2pm (at Gunville Methodist Hall).

The duration of a consultation will depend upon the nature and impact of the proposal, the diversity of interested parties, the complexity of the issue, and external events. Four weeks is regarded as a minimum period for a comprehensive consultation.

Communication online has the advantage of being immediate: information can be posted and responded to in minutes. But consultation timelines should not be shortened as a result. On the contrary, immediate communication can only take place if the audience has been targeted and is in receipt of the message. Online communication can potentially spread quickly but only if the message is strong and compelling. As has been discussed in previous blogs, ConsultOnline invests considerable amounts of time in targeting stakeholders, both initially and throughout the process.

Truthful and transparent

A commitment to honesty and openness is an undisputed and eternal quality of consultation and integral to this is the avoidance of ‘spin’. The consultor should always ensure that the community is equipped with the material required to take an informed view and information should be managed to ensure that the consultee is not inundated. For this reason, ConsultOnline presents information in a number of different ways and uses a variety of means by which to consult.

Confidentiality is an increasingly thorny issue in a world where public information is available at the touch of a button. All parties must be aware of the need to satisfy a public interest test. In the case of the development industry, this now takes the form of a Statement of Community Involvement (SCI). Stating the need for transparency and the duty on local authorities to make documents publically available under the Freedom of Information Act is necessary.

ConsultOnline provides an honest and open service. It does so through making the content of its website available to all, providing maximum information – whether as text, images, videos, technical documents, maps or links – and contact details. Contributions to forums are not vetted prior to appearing online, but are automatically checked for inappropriate language and spam. Residents are free to post questions on the Frequently Asked Questions pages and all questions (providing they are relevant) are responded to online.

With all ConsultOnline projects to date, specific polls and forums have been made available only to local residents. The importance of registration is three-fold:
- The proposed development will have a greater impact on those in a specific local area, and so it is important that local residents are given a priority in shaping the proposals.
- The more detailed the information from the local community, the more value it has to the consultation process. If a developer understands not only what the community feels, but where certain views originate geographically, results are more valid.
- The strenuous nature of SCIs requires that all responses can be identified by individual and location.
Developers’ opinions on the importance of user registration and identification vary and so a selection of options is available:
- Users must register to take part in some but not all forums and polls; registration is open to anyone
- Users must register to take part in all forums and polls; registration is open to anyone
- Users must register to take part in some forums and polls; only those in a specific postcode area are eligible to register
- Users must register to take part in all forums and polls; only those in a specific postcode area are eligible to register
Responsive

The day of informing the public on a development proposal and collecting in results at the end of the process is over. Today’s consultations are all about ongoing engagement. Online communication is fast and responsive, enabling the consultor to become aware of, to understand, and to correct any misconceptions immediately.

A ConsultOnline website can be in place within just five working days and changes to the website text can be made immediately. All posts are immediately received by ConsultOnline in an email, enabling a rapid response. In addition to a programme of posts being agreed with the developer in advance, forums are frequently posted at the request of members of the community.

In my next blog I will address the important principles of responsiveness and reporting / evaluation and communicating feedback. For regular updates on new blogs, please follow @penny_norton on Twitter.
The mini consultation website
May 20, 2015 6:26 pm Leave a Comment
ConsultOnline has launched the mini consultation (or community relations) website to provide a simple website suitable for a small development.

Typically, the website would follow a four-page structure with text, images, maps, poll-style questions, an opportunity to register for updates and send further comments to the team.

ConsultOnline will produce a report at the end of the process, although additional reporting can be built into the package. Reporting will feature demographic data, usage info, poll results, a database of those submitting contact details via the email submission form and a summary of questions / comments received via email.

Each website will be fully accessible on tablets and smart phones in addition to PCs reflecting the fact that the vast majority of ConsultOnline website users opt to take part in consultations using tablets and smart phones.

As with all ConsultOnline websites, it is possible to attach a mini website to your existing website.

All ConsultOnline websites are flexible to meet our clients’ requirements, so please or contact us directly to discuss your requirements.

View the website shown here.
The multi-location website
6:21 pm Leave a Comment
I am frequently asked whether clients who run more than one consultation using ConsultOnline can benefit financially from doing so.

My response is to provide all subsequent website not only cheaper, but effectively free.

With the multi-location consultation or community relations website the client buys a single website, a single URL and pays for the hosting of a single website from which micro-sites are based. Developers pay just for the time taken to install new information, to communicate with users and to monitor each microsite: design and development costs are not charged.

How it works

ConsultOnline will purchase a domain name in agreement with you. The suggested format is www.[organisation name].info/[site / location name].

The structure for each website must follow a similar – but not identical – format. We’re always keen to offer flexibility where it is required, and to develop the functionality as technology moves forward.

Reporting for the multi-location website can be carried out either for each microsite individually or overall.

Each website will be fully accessible on tablets and smart phones in addition to PCs, reflecting the fact that the vast majority of ConsultOnline website users opt to take part in consultations using tablets and smart phones.

As with all ConsultOnline websites, it is possible to attach a multi-location consultation or community relations website to your existing website.
The Principles of Best Practice in Online Consultation – Part 2
9:27 am Leave a Comment
In the first section of this series of blogs, I explained that my role in providing an online consultation service is to run a good consultation, not simply to get good results.

This series of posts focusses on how the principles of best practice in communication can be applied to online consultation and uses Scotch Corner Designer Village as a case study. If you haven’t already seen it, please have a look at Scotch Corner Designer Village. Let me have any feedback – constructive criticism is very much appreciated!

Visionary

Working with a community to develop a vision is the basis of consultation but the extent to which the community can determine that vision is debateable. The Community Planning website warns against unrealistic visions:

Nothing much is likely to be achieved without raising expectations. Yet dwelling entirely on the utopian can be frustrating. Strike a balance between setting visionary utopian goals and being realistic about the practical options available.

Having run many consultations on behalf of property developers, I would suggest that entrusting the development of a vision to the local community is a step too far on the Ladder of Participation. In development, vision is limited by both planning restrictions (such as density, height, massing and unit size) and economic viability. Excellent consultation does not offer a community a blank canvas on which to create its vision but manages a constructive dialogue: communicating a clear statement of the purpose, clarification of the constraints, the statutory policy framework and the way in which the results will be used.

The importance of professionals, who possess an understanding of long term implications must be carefully balanced against ‘people’ power, according to Bristol City Council:

Councillors and officers will often have to make their own judgement about the weight to be given to one or other of the views expressed. They may also have to consider carefully whether the aspirations and needs of future generations – who will perhaps be most affected by any change – might differ significantly from those of today’s population.

Websites are well placed to communicate a vision and to encourage others to share in it. The Home page of a ConsultOnline website shows an inspiring image of the proposed development alongside text designed to engage:

The vision is not solely that of the consultor’s, however: the consultee is encouraged to post images and enter into a wide range of discussion forums:

Appropriate selection of tactics

The methods selected are vital to an inclusive and accessible consultation. There is no single ‘right’ method and given the range of stakeholders in any one community, a variety is always necessary.

With the advent of online communication, the extensive toolbox of consultation techniques has expanded considerably. Excellent consultation should focus on those techniques which elicit the most through responses and produces the most discernible results.

Choosing the most appropriate tactics is at the heart of excellent consultation. It may be suggested that online consultation is a single tactic, but I would dispute this. The ConsultOnline service enables users to receive information in the form of text, images, video and weblinks, and to interact though polls, forums, picture boards, posting questions, and commenting on blogs and videos. Beyond the website, the service also enables communication via Facebook, Twitter and. Above all, ConsultOnline aims to communicate with people in a way that is deliberately interactive, enjoyable and user-friendly.

In The Art of Consultation, Rhion Jones and Elizabeth Gammell support the view that online consultation can attract users’ attention because of its innovative nature:

Part of the problem is that so many of the traditional methods are regarded as passé. They have been done to death and the novelty has worn off. Questionnaires are a case in point. Experienced consultors know that there is far more to consultation than surveys and recognise that quantitative data is frequently less useful than the qualitative variety.

I do not assume, however, that everyone prefers to communicate online, which is why ConsultOnline has operated alongside meetings with groups, newsletters and public exhibitions. One day online consultation may replace traditional consultation entirely but we are only at the very beginning of that process.

Penny Norton

Penny’s book Public Consultation and Community Involvement in Planning: a twenty-first century guide is published by Routledge in June 2017. Please email Penny to receive notification of its publication.
CommunitiesOnline: community relations during construction
May 12, 2015 9:08 am Leave a Comment
The work isn’t over when a scheme is granted planning consent – in many respects it’s just beginning.

Likewise, the consultation website shouldn’t be discarded at this point. Throughout a public consultation, ConsultOnline will have attracted interest to the website, gained the goodwill of many local residents, and the contact details of those who have an interest in the scheme.

These qualities are crucial to the scheme during the construction phase – the local community will need to understand what’s going on, want to know more detail about the timescales involved, and may need to be contacted directly in relation to the operations on site.

A CommunitiesOnline website is simply a ConsultOnline website adapted (at no additional cost) for this purpose. A CommunitiesOnline website provides some or all of the following:
- Home Page – an introduction to the work being carried out on site with links to key pages
- About the Scheme – an introduction to the proposals, which may include a timeline, interactive Google maps and Frequently Asked Questions (to which respondents may contribute)
- Construction update –regular updates regarding activity on site
- Media Gallery – video, image and audio files
- The Team – an introduction to the team with hyperlinks to each organisation’s own website as appropriate. Links which demonstrate environmental awareness, commitment to using local workers and apprenticeship schemes can be very beneficial at this stage.
- Planning – the planning consent document and Construction Management Plan may be uploaded
- Useful info – links to resources which may be of interest to local residents; perhaps a link to the Considerate Constructors Scheme.
- Contact Us – our contact details (downloadable as Vcards) and the opportunity for residents to sign up to regular news updates. We can provide a separate channel to enable people to get in touch regarding jobs or providing services, or provide an opportunity for individuals to get together to form a community association.
- A list of Quick Links on each page, which guide the user to relevant pages elsewhere on the website.
Very importantly, the website and ongoing engagement process are managed by us, allowing the developer to focus on development.

Contact us to find out how we can work with you to deliver excellent – and very cost effective – community relations during construction.

Penny Norton

Penny’s book Public Consultation and Community Involvement in Planning: a twenty-first century guide is published by Routledge in June 2017. Please email Penny to receive notification of its publication.
The Principles of Best Practice in Online Consultation – Part 1
May 6, 2015 11:14 am Leave a Comment
My role in providing an online consultation tool and service isn’t simply to get a stamp of approval from the local community for my clients. Of course I want to support my clients in gaining support for their proposals. But my role is to run a good consultation, not simply to get good results.

ConsultOnline is built on the principles of best practice in communication. In this blog post I consider what is ‘best practice’, and to what extent online consultation can accommodate these qualities.

My focus for this blog is development planning and the case study is Scotch Corner Designer Village, a ConsultOnline project which has recently been granted planning consent. The principles are universal though, and are equally important in my work outside property.

Access and engagement

It is widely believed that increased accessibility enables greater engagement with the local community, yet 12% planning applications fail to gain planning consent because of issues related to consultation and community engagement.

Online communication is a medium in which many people choose to communicate and by targeting residents via their preferred means, the likelihood of support is increased. Users can take part in an online consultation when and where they want – at home, on the move, while waiting for something / someone. My research so far suggests that many chose to take part in consultations late at night.

Because of its increased accessibility, online consultation has the power to reach new audiences – particularly the young and the time-poor. Local authorities welcome developers’ inclination to consult more widely; simultaneously this enables developers to unearth the support of the ‘silent majority’.

Data taken from ConsultOnline projects to date shows that engagement via mobile devices is increasingly popular:

The Scotch Corner Designer Village website was very easily viewed on a smart phone:

Again, ConsultOnline data shows how popular online consultation is among younger age groups:

Much has been written on the importance of targeting ‘hard to reach groups’ and ‘consultation fatigue’ is another common barrier to involvement.

Some traditionally ‘hard-to-reach’ groups can gain access to a consultation best through a website. In The Art of Consultation by Rhion Jones, Elizabeth Gammell, the authors argue:

Access to a personal computer has indeed revolutionised the opportunity to contribute to public debate for people how were previously struggling to be heard, and the ability of software to support innovative protocols never ceases to amaze. Text-to speech enables blind people to use the internet and speech-to-text is similarly useful for deaf people. Web designers are themselves urged to meet demanding new accessibility standards to ensure that disabled people can take advantage of these latest forms of communications.

ConsultOnline developed because it was felt that many people – particularly commuters, families with young children, the elderly and disabled – were not easily able to attend consultation events and provides an alternative accessible means of engagement.

A good consultation is accessible in every reasonable way possible. In practical terms, provision should be made for the partially sighted and translations provided for communities with a high proportion of non-English speakers. Consultation should also be intellectually accessible: language should be clear, simple and jargon-free with any complex concepts explained.

ConsultOnline is accessible in both its language and in the varied ways in which information is presented. ‘Translations’ of complex technical documents are available and the inclusion of email addresses and phone numbers enables users to obtain clarification should they require it.

Online consultation is also capable of removing hierarchies. In a busy public meeting, for example, attendees may defer to a dominating character or group leader. Ultimately those members are not adequately represented, despite their presence. Online, and particularly behind the veil of a username, individuals are more likely to voice their opinions without fear of repercussions, while personal details remain confidential but are accessible to the local authority as a confidential appendix to the SCI.

An excellent consultation should always retain a focus on eliciting responses from key stakeholders: it should not be assumed that simply because response levels are high, the community is adequately represented.

Above all, effective, wide-ranging and consistent promotion is key to making a consultation accessible: effective PR can make or break a consultation. For this reason, communication via social media, blogs and the local media is a standard inclusion in any ConsultOnline campaign.

Part 2 of this series of blogs will focus on developing a vision and selecting appropriate tactics. To keep up to date with all blog posts on this website please follow ConsultOnline on Twitter: @Penny_Norton.
The Internet and Public Consultation – Part 2
March 25, 2015 12:14 pm Leave a Comment
There’s a lot to say about the way in which the internet is shaping public consultation. Having described the background to online consultation and the way in which I have successfully used social media in consultation in Part 1, this second part focuses on the culmination of my work to date: ConsultOnline.

It was following the success my social media consultations for Bayfordbury Estates, Essential Living and Next but mindful of the constraints of social media, that I set up ConsultOnline last year.

ConsultOnline is a comprehensive website and associated consultation service which runs for the duration of a public consultation. The website, which includes an innovative selection of tactics to inform and consult, has many features of social media but has many additional advantages.

For example, ConsultOnline informs using:
- Text
- Images
- Video
- Audio
- News updates
- Exhibition boards
- Maps
- Wordclouds
- Documentation
Riverside Retail: using audio files in consultation

The various means deployed for consultation include:
- Polls
- Forums
- Questionnaires
- Blogs
- Picture boards
- Q&As
Oak Grove: Discussion home page

Every comment is responded to personally from an email addresses connected to the unique domain name. Usage can be controlled, if necessary, by limiting comments to those of a certain postcode area, limiting the number of posts per person, limiting the size of an online response, or providing specific forums with a ‘shelf life’.

The website is updated regularly throughout the consultation. It is supported and promoted through a social media campaign but aims to provide a platform for all online engagement on the planning application. As such, it is possible for all discussion to be very effectively monitored, feeding into a comprehensive Statement of Community Involvement (consultation report) and enabling very responsive communication with consultees.

Social media has been found to be an effective way to promote ConsultOnline websites. A Twitter profile is set up at the start of the consultation. Tweets are both posted in advance and sent out in conjunction with new posts on the website. New followers are welcomed with a personal message and tweets responded to. A ‘community page’ is set up on Facebook and the page advertised to those living in the vicinity of the development. In a recent project by ConsultOnline, Scotch Corner Designer Village, 47% of users found the website via social media.

ConsultOnline projects to date: website access

But ConsultOnline has many advantages over social media:
- ConsultOnline does not require users to be registered with social media channels in order to take part
- It offer a wider selection of communications tactics
- Discussion pages are more easily visible, and therefore more accessible
- Quick links enable the user to navigate around the site with ease
- V cards enable users to download contact and event information directly to Outlook
- ConsultOnline can limit participation to specific postcode areas and other controls are available as required
- It enables users to hide behind an anonymous username if they wish – but ConsultOnline has a database of all users which can be supplied to the local authority as part of an SCI
- ConsultOnline websites have a unique, specific domain name (eg, www.scotchcornerdesignervillage.com or www.theperfumefactory.info) and a set of connected email addresses (eg, info@scotchcornerdesignervillage.com, info@theperfumefactory.info, penny@scotchcornerdesignervillage.com, penny@theperfumefactory.info)
- A range of branding options are available as part of the ConsultOnline service
- Clients can request changes to the template according to their specific requirements
- The ConsultOnline template is constantly updated and improved upon
- Users may register for updates via email
- Reporting is significantly more comprehensive and accurate
Please have a look at the Scotch Corner Designer Village website and let me have any thoughts. The ConsultOnline template has been designed to accommodate change because I believe that every piece of work can be an improvement on the last.

With the exciting pace of change that we’re currently experiencing there are considerable opportunities for progress.

Penny Norton

Penny’s book Public Consultation and Community Involvement in Planning: a twenty-first century guide is published by Routledge in June 2017. Please email Penny to receive notification of its publication.
The internet and public consultation – Part 1
March 16, 2015 1:45 pm Leave a Comment
The internet and social media are changing the way we communicate at every level, both personally and professionally. This increased significantly in 2004 when Web 2.0 changed enabled substantially more effective two-way communication. Facebook was also established in the UK in 2004 and Twitter followed in 2006.

Just look at the figures – today 58m individuals in the UK use the internet regularly and this is increasing by 1.5m each year. Additionally, over 60% owns a smart-phone or tablet.

Development planning has seen a massive shift towards online consultation. In 2005 the Government required that local authorities and other public bodies ‘e-enable’ all services including planning, public engagement and consultation. As local authorities are now obliged to post all planning applications online, local residents can view planning application online. And as community groups and activists discuss and debate development proposals on Facebook, Twitter and in blogs, the local media can quickly gather residents’ views to inform online news stories, which then results in a further sequence of online engagement. Because of this, it is vital that every potential new development has an online presence.

Consultation and social media

In 2010, I used social media in a public consultation for Brookfield Riverside, a retail scheme in Hertfordshire. The client, Bayfordbury Estates, was keen to engage with young residents and I selected social media as an appropriate way of doing so.

Bayfordbury Estates, Brookfield Riverside: Facebook forum

A dedicated community website provided an overview of the proposals; the proposed effects of the regeneration, the masterplan, artists impressions, a Q&A section and information on the consultation process. The website contained a comments box for visitors to submit feedback, links to social media and details of the information phone line. The Facebook and Twitter pages were live throughout the consultation period, providing a forum for consultees to interact with the consultation team. The team regularly posted updates on the consultation and responded to comments as necessary.

Bayfordbury Estates, Brookfield Riverside: using Facebook to engage and address misunderstandings

The website attracted 1,029 visits during the consultation process and 31 questionnaires were completed online. The Facebook page received over 1,900 viewings and 264 individuals gave their support to the page by becoming a “fan”. The average age of the Facebook users was 35 – 44 and 63% of respondents were female. The Twitter feed attracted 106 followers and prompted some lively discussion. Overall, 64% respondents were broadly in favour of the proposals and over 73% of survey respondents supported improved shopping facilities for the Borough.

Following the success of Brookfield Riverside, I have continued to run online consultations for retail and residential developers. Examples can be viewed here:
- Essential Living Langley Court – Facebook and Twitter
- Essential Living Archway Tower – Facebook and Twitter
- Essential Living Berkshire House – Facebook and Twitter
- Next Handforth Dean – Facebook and Twitter
- Next Longwater – Facebook and Twitter
- Next Maidstone – Facebook and Twitter
My next blog post will look at how I’ve taken the idea of using social media in consultation and created something which addresses all the benefits but is more effective, cheaper and more suited to consultation.

Please look out for the next post. In the meantime, any comments are very welcome!
Case study: Scotch Corner Designer Village
September 29, 2014 2:09 pm Leave a Comment
The scheme

Scotch Corner Designer Village is a proposed 250,000 sq. ft. designer outlet village, to be situated on the A1(M) in North Yorkshire. Following an extensive consultation, both online and offline, the scheme gained planning consent in January 2015.

Planning history

The site already has planning permission for 135,000 sq. ft. of warehousing and 90,000 sq. ft. of offices.

However, Simon Waterfield, an entrepreneur who has been the driving force behind wide variety of commercial schemes in the South West, East Midlands and Yorkshire, identified the site as being ideally located for a high quality retail outlet. Scotch Corner Richmond LLP was formed and a project team set up, including architects Corstorphine & Wright and planning consultants Peter Brett Associates LLP.

The approach

ConsultOnline had period of just six weeks in which to complete the online consultation, working closely with public affairs advisers Polity.

The scheme’s website, http://www.scotchcornerdesignervillage.com/, was set up quickly following a telephone briefing.

The consultation tactics included questionnaires, polls, forums, blogs and the option for users to post images. Information was available as text, video, images, documentation, email updates, Vcards, Googlemaps and a blog. The service was monitored 24/7 – enabling ConsultOnline to become aware of, to understand, and to correct misconceptions immediately; and for those taking part to receive a quick response. A user guide provided step-by-step advice in addition to terms and conditions.

The website was immediately followed by Facebook and Twitter profiles, which were used to promote the website. ConsultOnline posted on a wide variety of local organisations’ Facebook pages and blogs, and established some useful contacts via Twitter.

Results

On its first day, the website attracted over 700 unique users and over the next six weeks, over 3,500 hits. By the day planning consent was granted, over 6,500 individuals had visited the website.

ConsultOnline provided extremely comprehensive analysis and reporting using Google Analytics, WordPress data and other web-based tools including heat-mapping.

Over two-thirds (77.88%) of users accessed the website using mobile and tablets and 27% of hits were returning users.

Almost half (49%) of users found the website via social media; 36% accessed it directly and 13.5% through an organic search.

Demographics revealed that 33.5% of the users were in the 25.34 age bracket, followed by 27.5 aged 18-24, 15.5% aged 35-44 and 11% aged 55 +. Men were slightly more likely to take part in the consultation than women (54.15% and 45.85% respectively).

Tag Archive: social media

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.

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.