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The degree to which
councils undertake consultation and participation can range from provision of
information regarding policies or action already undertaken or about to be
undertaken, through consultation on a selection of pre-determined options,
right up to visioning exercises where the public get to decide on the aims of
underlying policy itself rather than just the implementation.
The extent to which
consultation goes on is often determined by two factors. Whether consultation is
a statutory requirement (as is often the case in land-use planning instances)
or if the activities are potentially controversial (as is often the case with
any policies or actions restricting the use of cars). Although in many cases
the public does not hold a role in the final decision, local politicians were,
in many cases, unlikely to go against very strong public views where these had
been expressed through formal council procedures.
The range of consultees
extends from other council departments (although in some cases problems occur
due to lack of consultation within departments!), to other councils, other
layers of governance (e.g. regional or national), government agencies, NGOs and
organisations representing certain members of the general public, and finally
individual members of the public. In many cases consultation with other
departments and councils occurs within general working practices by way of
joint committees or regular meetings (this has particularly developed in the UK in relation to the Local Air Quality Management Process).
Where communication with regional and national occurs, this is often much less
interactive. In terms of consultation with the public, the first approach is
often through communication with NGOs and other bodies such as residents
associations. This often finds ‘activists’ in the community, those people who
have strong opinions on matters and are consequently part of groups. Finding
the opinion of the normal, everyday, uncommitted person is a far more complex
task. There are various ways to approach this including extensive surveys, the
creation of public panels (this is discussed below) and the creation of public
exhibitions to both inform people and give them an opportunity to submit their
opinion.
Land-use planning has
the best general record for consultation procedures. This stems from the direct
localised effect of many planning applications on neighbourhoods. In many
countries consultation over land-use, at both the level of an individual
application and at a more strategic level is usually compulsory (although in
the UK the government is currently trying to limit requirements
for consultation on certain types of projects). Public consultation becomes
increasingly less frequent for transport and environmental issues. Where
transport schemes could have a large effect on specific neighbourhoods, some
form of consultation tends to occur but there is rarely the opportunity for the
public to do more than prioritise options (the final choice of which is often
pre-determined for other reasons). With environmental matters, consultation is
even less frequent, often because issues become scientific or technical fact
and therefore are suitable for dissemination for transparency and information
purposes, but there is very little room for discussion. General environmental
themes are often approached through Local Agenda 21 programmes, and actions to
improve environmental conditions put forward as action plans tend to involve
issues where there is no need for general consultation (such as changing
licensing conditions on industrial processes) or cross-over in to the land-use
and transport planning spheres.
The most prominent example of good
practice found amongst sample cities is the development of consultation panels
consisting of a broad (and representative range) members of the public. These
come by a range of titles (Citizen’s Panel in Bristol, People’s Panel in Birmingham, Consulta in Venice) but amount to much the same thing, a group of members of
the public who commit themselves to being consulted on a wide range of topics.
This avoids the issues of the general public feeling “over-consulted”
(something that seems to occur often, especially combined with a parallel
feeling that their views aren’t acted upon). It also avoids the tendency for
consultees to only express views on matters that they have specific interests
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