T4: Engagement & Participation

Most people involved in large scale development projects are aware of the statutory need to involve stakeholders (including the local community) in the planning process, but ATLAS experience suggests that there are varying degrees of enthusiasm and levels of success in the way that engagement actually happens.

Local people have a vital role in conveying local issues, influencing proposals that will affect them and potentially having a long term involvement in management and decision making. These objectives are reflected in current planning policy & guidance, which advocates front loading of engagement early on in the planning process, ideally helping to set the overall agenda, and sets out a formal requirement for ‘Statements of Community Involvement’ as part of the Local Development Framework process. Reforms to local governance and the Planning White Paper strengthen the emphasis on engagement.

Likewise other key stakeholders such as statutory agencies must be involved throughout the evolution of a project to ensure that the outcome is acceptable and deliverable. Stakeholders for a major development proposal are likely to include regional government, national bodies such the Environment Agency, highways, local interest groups, utilities, Parish Councils and local people. This paper focuses primarily on the local community and future occupiers. For further information on other stakeholders, refer to the Process section of the main Guide.

Engagement requires commitment from all partners in terms of time, money invested upfront and skills, and there are a variety of ways that stakeholders and the wider public can be engaged. To get the most from the involvement each project will need a tailored approach based on local and project specific circumstances.
 
Engaging early on in the planning process can be highly effective in relation to generating community buy-in, identifying and addressing key issues. This can save abortive work and issues being raised late in the process causing delay and uncertainty.  The local community can be experts in understanding the neighbourhood and may be able to identify opportunities and constraints that are not apparent to professionals.