Draft Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) consultation

Draft Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) consultation

Consultation description

The SCI states our approach to engaging with anyone who may have an interest in development that is happening around them and seeks to improve the way we engage with our communities in the planning process.

We recognise the importance of community engagement in the planning process, to make the best-informed decisions we need to hear from those in the communities who will feel the impact of development. We are committed to working with our residents and local stakeholders to build trust and remove existing barriers to anyone who wants to influence decisions that will affect them.

Document

Draft Statement of Community InvolvementPDF, 746.9 KB, 28 pages

What happens next

Thank you for taking part in the consultation.

We'll keep this page updated with the results of the consultation.

YOU SAID, WE DID 

We asked

The Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) is a statutory document which sets out how we carry out consultations on planning applications. It also covers how we effectively engage the community in carrying out our other planning duties, such as planning policy changes.

The consultation took place in two stages. The first was through resident listening panel sessions. This was followed by a round of consultation to external stakeholders where we invited feedback on the draft version of the SCI.

The key aims of the consultation were to find out:

• what our communities already knew about the planning system
• what they found were barriers to engaging with it
•  what could be done to facilitate the maximum amount of participation in the planning process in future

This engagement helped us to devise a set of principles that we sought to address in the new SCI, known collectively as ‘Principles of Engagement’. These are:

• early engagement
• inclusive engagement
• use of appropriate consultation methods
• clear information and simple communications
• transparent records and feedback

Key aspects of the feedback that helped identify the principles listed above is detailed below.

You said

The following were the main barriers listed by respondents to engaging with the planning system.

The planning system is complex, technical and jargon-heavy

Planning processes often involve complex legal and technical terminology. This makes it difficult for community members without specialised knowledge to understand proposals, discussions or documents such as planning statements, architectural drawings or technical reports.

Planning consultations are not always visible and information is often hard to find

Consultation of planning proposals, particularly site notices, are hard to read and understand. Other information relating to planning documents are sometimes perceived as not being readily accessible. Another common response was that consultations can be overwhelming as the wider council can launch multiple consultations at the same time.

Perception of a lack of transparency

Our communities feel they often hear about things too late in the process, often when the proposed scheme is already at planning application stage. There was also a perceived lack of trust with the planning system, with a common response highlighting that this is a result of the confidentiality of pre-application planning advice.

We did

The planning system is complex, technical and jargon-heavy

We have drafted an easy to read version of the SCI and have used clear and simple language that everyone can understand, avoiding technical terms and providing relatable examples where possible when explaining concepts.

We’ve also committed to making sure that consultation and engagement materials are as clear and concise as possible, written in plain English, avoid jargon, and provide an explanation of terminology where it is necessary to use it.

A list of key contact details of services areas within the council who can be contacted for further information on different issues has also been included within the SCI as Appendix 1 to ensure that advice services are as visible as possible.

Planning consultations are not always visible and information is often hard to find

We’ve worked to increase the visibility of our consultations beyond the normal channels. The SCI makes clear that we will explore varied communication methods, such as:

• email alerts
• council webpages
• social media
• local media
• council meetings
• community events and presentations
• focus groups and workshops
• newsletters, leaflets and flyers
• surveys and questionnaires
• utilising our networks
• story maps and summary documents
• online consultation tools

A general refresh of the site notices that we currently use is also under development. This will include the use of QR codes to link to our planning portal to quickly allow access to information online. Work around this are continuing, and given the ongoing work, the specifics of have not been included in the SCI itself.

Other feedback relating to the number of consultations being launched concurrently has also been addressed by us. We have created a central consultation hub online which highlights upcoming engagement activities so that communities have significant notice to plan and formulate their responses. References to this and links to the hub have been included in the SCI on Page 4.

Perception of a lack of transparency

To ensure the community feels included in the planning process at an early stage and to combat the perception that they often hear about things too late in the process, we have published Early Community Engagement Guidance. This is set out in the Pre-Application section of the SCI on Page 18 and the above mentioned guidance has also been sign-posted.

Given the perception of a lack of transparency with the pre-application planning advice service, we also committed to publishing this. This will happen when a subsequent planning application is formally lodged with us, validated and made public.

This will apply where pre-application discussions began on or after 1 August 2023. The advice will be published on the planning portal, alongside other documents relating to the application. Clarification of this recent change to the pre-application planning advice service has been included in the SCI on Page 19.