What we want to see is a meaningful system that produces results that reflect overwhelming public opinion on a case by case basis – not just when it also corresponds with the governments’ own policy framework.
- John Bridge OBE
The plea comes just days after an article was published in the Telegraph where English Heritage, who staunchly opposed the recently approved Ely Southern Bypass, claimed that decisions on the future of historic towns should be taken away from local councils and instead debated nationally.
However Cambridgeshire Chambers of Commerce claims that there is already enough evidence of the views of local stakeholders not being taken into consideration that to move the decision-making process out of the locality would leave local people with no voice at all.
John Bridge OBE, Chief Executive of Cambridgeshire Chambers of Commerce, said: “For a long time we have seen planners repeatedly ignoring public opinion following apparently meaningless planning consultations, whether it be the wind farm at Gravely, an adult shop on the A1M or additional housing provision at Waterbeach that was instigated by the Planning Inspector despite it not being included in the original local plan.
“Without any requirement to take the responses of a public consultation into consideration, the focus is on process rather than meaningful dialogue. Communities who spend time and effort contributing are left disillusioned with the flawed system and business representatives in particular, for whom time is precious, find the process frustrating and debilitating.
“What we want to see is a meaningful system that produces results that reflect overwhelming public opinion on a case by case basis – not just when it also corresponds with the governments’ own policy framework.”
Claims that consultations are meaningless have been supported by the results of a recent study in the airport sector that showed the similarly time-consuming and expensive exercise can make little difference to the end result. The study, completed by Dr Sally Dixon PhD at Cranfield University’s Department of Air Transport, examined how airport managers incorporate stakeholder contributions into their plans.
Her analysis found stakeholder consultations to be ineffectual, partly as stakeholder opinion does little to influence the decisions of airport managers but also because people outside of the airport sector found the level of specialist knowledge needed too prohibitive to contribute meaningfully.
Dr Sally Dixon PhD said: “When looking at why consultations do so little to change original plans, we found that English planning law actually prevents decision-making processes from being made transparent to stakeholders. Case law demonstrates that it only has to be shown that stakeholder opinion has been heard, not that it had any effect on subsequent decision-making. We also found that these ‘tick-box’ exercises were also often vulnerable to central government policy and pressures from local authorities that assign land-use.”
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