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The bad news is that our key 1994 report for the Department of the
Environment "Community Participation in Planning and
Development" is no longer available (except by a request
to us for a hard copy). This report laid the foundations for all
the recent changes towards greater community involvement in planning.
The good news is that the key chapter on participation in "Making
Plans" (ODPM, 2002) is available as a download. This too fed
directly into the planning reforms and is worth reading to see what
government did and did not pick up on:
Making
Plans Extract PDF 184kb
More recently, drawing on a concern to fine-tune the new system
re. community involvement, BDOR submitted evidence for what is now
the "Planning for a Sustainable Future" White Paper:
BDOR
Submission to DCLG PDF 232kb
Following some concern that too much participation and engagement
is ad hoc and run solely by field workers without higher
level organisational support, Jeff Bishop wrote a more thorough
paper about how a Local Authority or Local Strategic Partnership
(or any large organisation) can in fact should be
establishing a more coherent "Infrastructure for Engagement"
(as the paper is called). The model Jeff developed is already widely
used in a variety of settings:
Infrastructure
for Engagement PDF 1.5mb
One core principle of good engagement is about replacing the outdated
and damaging approach a colleague calls Decide-Announce-Defend
(DAD) with a more collaborative, front-loaded approach called Engage-Deliberate-Decide
(EDD). We have produced two papers on this. One (A Tale of
Two Cities) compares both approaches and shows the remarkable
benefits of EDD over DAD. The other draws on experience and examples
from us and others with several quick cameos comparing
the two approaches across a range of examples:
Tale
of Two Cities PDF 88kb
Conflict
or Consensus Cameos PDF 104kb
A continued glaring and damaging weakness in the new planning system
in relation to community involvement is the poor guidance on final
reports of involvement the all-important evidence-based
audit trails. (And this can apply to any involvement, whether in
planning or not.) We have produced a very practical note on how
to produce the sort of report that can (if properly done) provide
a robust audit trail that can stand up to appeal, inquiry or even
an appearance in court!
Reports
of Consultation PDF 224kb


In May 2006 BDOR (with others) produced a report on Community
Plans for SWAN (the South West Acre Network), the MCTA (Market
and Coastal Towns Association) and SWRDA, GOSW, DEFRA and the Commission
for Rural Communities. Community Plans for us includes
Parish Plans and Market and Coastal Town Strategic Plans (and, to
a lesser extent, Village Design Statements). The report looked ahead
to a different and positive future for such plans, now consolidated
through the "Strong and Prosperous Communities" White
Paper as well as the planning White Paper. The research has already
been well used and several regional initiatives have spun off from
it. There are two items, a summary report and a full report, both
listed here:
Swan Report
- Summary PDF 96kb
Swan Report -
Full PDF 928kb
Jeff Bishop was commissioned by SWAN and the MCTA to prepare a submission
to the planning White Paper:
SWAN/MCTA
submission PDF 280kb
Jeff has also published two articles on this topic:
Article
for Town and Country Planning Journal PDF 136kb
Article
for Planning PDF 80kb


Having worked on several aspects of planning for renewable energy,
Jeff Bishop worked with the Centre for Sustainable Energy and others
to develop protocols for community engagement in wind
energy projects. These have now been published formally by government
(with Ministerial endorsement) for both England and Wales:
Wind Protocol
England PDF 312kb
Wind
Power Community Benefits PDF 240kb


BDOR does not put on a regular, marketed programme of training.
Jeff Bishop delivers training in facilitation, process design and
network establishment/management with InterAct Networks (link here),
runs some ad hoc courses and supports others in their training programmes.
Jeffs training is always very popular and successful
on a recent course 8 participants (out of 14) scored the course
10/10! Recent/current courses include:
Facilitation skills (for policy planners):
Outline
of Facilitation Course PDF 400kb
Community Involvement and Development Control (for DC planners and
developers):
Outline
of DC Course PDF 416kb
Process Design (for anybody doing engagement):
Process
Course Brochure PDF 1.5mb
All of the above are planned as hosted courses. A host
is typically a local authority, whose staff then receive some financial
benefit in exchange for the provision of a venue and catering. Contact
us if you are interested in hosting an event.


An initiative on which BDOR undertook the consultation was recently
featured in Planning magazine:
Planning
Article 2 PDF 520kb
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