Consultation as Science Communication?  The Case of Local Air Quality Management

QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS

The research team thank all Local Authorities who participated in the survey!

The questionnaire was sent to all of the 353 English Local Authorities and 42% response rate has been achieved. The results portray how consultation in Local Air Quality Management (LAQM) has been conducted, including which stakeholders were consulted, which elements of the LAQM work were consulted, the importance of stakeholders' views and which factors affected the success of consultation. Data from the survey allowed for the construction of an initial map of approaches used by local authorities on the basis of information, consultation, and participatory consultation approaches.

A full report of questionnaire results is available here. Please click here to download the questionnaire. 

Section A. Stakeholders in Local Air Quality Management consultation

It is generally the Environmental Health Department who has primary responsibility for LAQM consultation. Over 55% of survey participants worked individually in consultation whilst the remaining worked as a team.

Land-use planning (90%), followed by transport planning (77%), were the internal departments mostly consulted in LAQM. Almost all participants carried out consultation with external stakeholders as follows: Defra (90%), the Environment Agency (80%), and the Highways Agency (65%). The public was also being consulted, primarily with residents (62%), residents groups (49%), and local businesses (55%).

Section B. Consultation strategies

Over 90% of Local Authorities in England opted for supply information to consult on air quality management issues, followed by workshops/meetings (64%) where public meetings were chosen by 30% of survey participants. Only 8% evaluated the effectiveness of the methods used in consultation and over 80% were never provided with training on how to do air quality management consultation.

Section C. Consultation processes

Survey participants considered time & staff resources as the most significant internal factor to the success of consultation. On the other hand, guidance from central government was deemed to be the most important external factor. In the end, Local Authorities were asked how they perceive the success of air quality management consultation in their authority. Forty percents said yes, 16% opted for no whilst 44% were unsure.