I recently attended an event entitled ‘Making the planning system work for the 21st Century’. The purpose of the event was to look at ways in which the planning industry can modernise to deliver better results for communities, stakeholders and developers.
Those with an interest in strategic land acquisition and planning promotion should take the political constraints into account when considering future options.
Engaging with stakeholders can be a particularly daunting task, especially if you are unsure how they will react to you dropping them a call for the first time. Nevertheless, it is something that can have great benefits in the short term, and build relationships that work long into the future. So what are the unwritten rules?
Put a group of developers, planners and architects in a room with the seminar topic “Social Media in Consultation” and you would probably expect the response to be one of reticence, confusion and a general sense of “why bother?” Well you’d be right, but the mood is changing in the industry and for good reason.
The growing importance of social media as an engagement tool in the planning consultation process has been highlighted in a Remarkable Engagement survey of 1,401 councillors across Great Britain.
With devolution still leaving many people scratching their heads, Remarkable Engagement will attempt to bring the topic of southern devolution into sharper focus.
It’s fair to say the path to Southern Devolution has been a bumpy one. Serious proposals for a ‘Southern Powerhouse’ have been in the pipeline for well over a year now, but disagreement between council leaders in Hampshire and goings-on in Westminster have threatened to scupper the plans. Over time, the fault lines have appeared resulting in the emergence of what appears to be two opposing factions.
