The Parish Pump - The merits of holding consultations as close to the community as possible

There are 10,000 odd parish or town councils in England and Wales, and suddenly everyone wants to be nice to them. Deprived of powers, status and money, it is now thought that they might be important. Ministers and civil servants are scurrying to see what can be done to strengthen these bodies – with a Community Empowerment White Paper being prepared as summer reading for us all.

It raises interesting issues for, just as we resurrect David Milliband’s “double devolution” idea, we face an even more determined campaign by those who oppose the Planning Bill that’s going through Parliament which will centralise decision-making on large infrastructure projects such as nuclear power stations, reservoirs, airports, major roads and even wind farms. A new consortium of environmental and conservation bodies called Planning Disaster is trying to raise the stakes, claiming that we will create a huge “democratic deficit” if legislation lets national considerations override local public opinion. So, on the one hand we have an attempt to encourage small-scale local planning at one end of the bureaucratic spectrum, and a perceived withdrawal of power at the other. 4,000 parishes have apparently involved their citizens in drawing up Parish plans, and recent provisions of the 2007 Local Government & Public Involvement in Health Act require an unprecedented level of dialogue about Local Area Agreements. In both cases, the idea is that local people can set the agenda and influence what happens, and there are lots of reasons to support a general presumption that you should always consult at the lowest practicable level:-

• Local dialogue about local issues will always be sharper, more immediate and more likely to uncover any weaknesses in controversial proposals • The methods of consultation are much more likely to reflect the local culture and successfully involve voluntary and community bodies that matter in the community • Hard-to-reach or seldom-heard groups may find it less inhibiting and easier to participate in the less formal atmosphere of a very local debate • There should be less of a disconnect between proposals and action, and less of a chance that community views will be overridden by factors from outside.

Unfortunately, however, rhetoric and reality clash where there are conflicts of interest, and where local people are sure they don’t want something that the wider community feels it needs. That is why the current Planning Bill poses such a dilemma. No one wants the lights to go out, but no one wants a power station near them, thank you very much. The Heathrow third runway exposes the problem at its most drastic; 700 houses and a whole village disappear if BAA gets its way. Local parishes may however generate just as much opposition to gipsy/traveller sites, asylum seeker centres or even new housing.

The right approach is to develop robust mechanisms to gather public and stakeholder views and to express them in ways that can be properly considered at whatever level the decisions eventually have to be made - and we should keep those decisions as local as possible. That is why the Government must resist the temptation to widen the range of nationally-significant projects and why it has recently clarified the position regarding major roads. It must also avoid the appearance that local people’s views don’t count.

Politicians are without doubt vulnerable to pressure when communities feel their voices go unheard. Kidderminster (Wyre Forest) voted for itself a single-issue MP, and those who now worry about the decision to proceed to the next stage of Greater Manchester’s proposed mega-congestion charge scheme fear that motorists will take their revenge for an unwelcome new tax at the ballot box.

All these have one thing in common. Manchester’s commuters, Heathrow’s threatened village, those who object to roads, rail depots, housing developments and incinerators .... are all owed the courtesy of a mature, informed and locally-focused debate – regardless of where the final decision is taken. That way we can gradually educate the public on the processes of engagement as well as the substance of difficult issues. It all begins at the parish pump – where 100,000 Town or Parish councillors have a growing role in building better dialogue with their communities. It’s quite a challenge.

Trigger points

• Watch for significant moves to strengthen local consultation in the forthcoming White Paper on Community Empowerment
• Become familiar with the provisions of the Planning Bill, now approaching the end of its passage through the Commons, but facing a difficult time in the House of Lords.
• Check out www.planningdisaster.co.uk for a great example of a campaigning website and good use of consultation responses (see resources section)
• Consider attending the Institute’s first event dedicated to Public Engagement on Major Projects.

This is the 112th 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