A Question of Relevance - Why we need to focus on the right issues

If you look down a list of consultations from a range of public bodies, two things become immediately obvious. One is the sheer variety of topics and issues. The other is the number that appear to focus upon procedural rather than substantive matters.

There are good reasons why this happens. Legislators are acutely conscious of governance issues - how public bodies are run - and are sensitive to any allegations of tinkering around with the rules which could be construed as bureaucratic gerrymandering. There has, therefore, arisen a general presumption that changes to the structure or governance of public institutions should always be preceded by consultation.

So if the boundaries need to change, or if Board membership needs to be amended, or if funding arrangements need updating etcetera, there is quite likely to be a dry-as-dust consultation paper of little interest to anyone save those who are directly concerned Take the current Local Government Bill, slowly meandering its way through Parliament, and giving effect to Ruth Kelly's White Paper of last October. By far the most controversial aspect is the prospect that the two-tier system will disappear in parts of England, as Districts are either absorbed by Counties or amalgamated to form new unitary authorities. But, guess what? First, they must consult their residents - even though the Government has finally had to acknowledge that their timetable didn't allow them time to do this properly!

This means that hundreds of thousands of citizens will be consulted on the question - Do you prefer to be represented by your current Council or would you prefer this new alternative .......? There is nothing wrong with seeking people's views about this, but it begs the question whether the general public identifies with this as a key issue or whether council taxpayers would prefer to have an input into matters of policy that affect them on a day-to-day basis.

There are plenty of such issues. Simply because we are preparing for our first-ever Spotlight event on the subject, the Institute has recently been looking closely at public engagement on aspects of waste management - and it seems that there is enormous public interest in several aspects of the subject. People are highly exercised by changes in refuse collection or in the provision of recycling centres. There is widespread opposition to centralised incineration and treatment centres and the traffic and noise they generate, and there is disquiet about the lack of sufficient action to tackle waste at source with retail packaging and over-consumption.

Yet on these bread-and-butter decisions, the record of Local Authorities and others on consultation is patchy at best and, such public participation as we have examined, once again tends to focus on the administrative arrangements for waste management rather than on operational aspects that affect individuals and businesses. In fact, as far as can be seen from their websites, many Authorities appear not to have consulted at all on this, one of the most critical issues on their agendas!

Back to the Local Government Bill. One of the Government's recent announcements has been that it will add new clauses to the Bill to facilitate the creation of Joint Waste Authorities - something the LGA have campaigned for - and, you've guessed it - there will be a need to consult the community before they go ahead. So next year's question will be:- Do you approve of our Council working together with our neighbouring Council to .........?

But that will be money and effort spent trying to get community groups and stakeholder organisations to enter into dialogue, and wouldn't that resource be better spent discussing the substantive changes that we all must embrace if sensible sustainable waste management policies are going to work at ground level?

Consultation fatigue is a real issue and there is a finite amount of mind-space and time available for people to contribute to public dialogue. We must make better use of it, and focus on what is most relevant.

Trigger points

• Analyse your last 20-odd consultations; what's the balance between procedural/organisational and substantive issues?
• Look in particular at waste management - it is a useful bell-weather of your consultation performance. Have you had a worthwhile dialogue on those aspects of the problem that fall within your purview?
• Consider attending the Institute's event - Public Engagement and Waste Management.

This is the 84th Tuesday Topic; a full list of subjects covered is available for Institute members and is a valuable resource covering so many aspects of consultation and engagement