Community Involvement

All planning applications are published by planning authorities who in addition to seeking consultation responses from technical authorities (Highways, Environmental Health, Environment Agency etc) invite comments from neighbours and community bodies (Parish council's etc) and therefore the public perception of a proposal is important.

We assist clients in obtaining planning consent for projects that can be seen as controversial and generate considerable public interest and very few planning applications do not generate a need to manage the public perception and community involvement.

Even the smallest domestic application can require meeting the Parish/Town council to ensure that they understand what is proposed and respond to queries before comments are submitted to the planning authority.

Larger projects have carefully assembled ways of gathering public opinion and concerns that help to shape proposals and combat the 'fear of the unknown' as it is often the case that concerns arise from preconceptions or mis-understandings that may be easier to correct at an early stage of community involvement.

Obtaining consent for unsilenced historic car racing on the motor circuit at Goodwood airfield in 1999 was technically challenging and generated the highest level of public interest we have encountered for a project. To succeed factsheets were produced to communicate options and alternatives for landscaping proposals and a range of specialist consultants engaged to provide accurate and dispassionate information about acoustics and sound attenuation resulting in a scheme that incorporated earth banks around the circuit that members of the public attending the Goodwood Revival will be familiar with.

Since 1999, we have built upon our experience of active community involvement at Goodwood in the collaborative design of other proposals on 17 occasions. Each project used a tailored approach to public involvement with Public Meetings; Private Views and; Collaborative Design Workshops all used together with Press Releases; Leaflet Drops and Project Websites to disseminate information and gather opinions to and from interested community groups; neighbours and; interested members of the public.

Public interest and concern were particularly acute in a project that arose from the closure of the last Public House in a rural village and it can be difficult to separate the reasons for the closure of the Pub from the need to find a viable use for the historic building. Private views and informal workshops were held in the premises where demands for facts and answers to questions from hostile members of the public were responded to by DBP staff and proposals were adjusted in response to feedback received.

We have managed public consultations for the change of use of former Public Houses to residential uses on three occasions in Singleton, Slindon and Midhurst, providing a viable use for and conserving the heritage value in the Listed Buildings and following public consultation, in two thirds of cases the projects were less contentious and received fewer objections than first anticipated.

Our bespoke, informal private view and workshop formulas have consistently revealed what neighbours and other members of the local community think about proposed development and when key issues / objections are identified, ideas have evolved that have assisted with obtaining planning consent.

Each case requires a tailored community involvement strategy with different versions of our private view and/or collaborative workshop formula used in the following:-

iii. Restoration and redevelopment of Shipley Windmill, Horsham

iv. Knowle Park and the redevelopment of West Cranley Nurseries to provide a Public Park and 290 houses in Cranley

v. Portfield Football Ground, redevelopment for housing in Chichester

vi. Greystoke Manor Residential Care Home, Ferring

vi. Zacara Polo, Great Martins, Shurrock Row, Reading

vii. Cowdray Park Polo, Midhurst

viii. Great House Farm Polo, Stedham

ix. Ellerston Polo, Manor Farm, South Ambersham

x. Stedham Collins Sports Club

xi. The first PV field in a National Park at the Manor of Cadland Estate, New Forest

xii. Rolls Royce car factory on the Goodwood Estate at Westhampnett

xiii. On-farm Anaerobic Digesters at Sefter Farm, Pagham and

xiv. On-farm Anaerobic Digesters at the Herriard Estate, near Basingstoke.

Fundraising and active community support were fostered by similar community involvement strategies for:-

xv. Extensions to St Mary's Church, Apuldram

xvi. Restoration and Alterations to The Pavilion Theatre, Selsey

xvii. The Diabetic Centre, St Richard's Hospital, Chichester

When providing advice to clients, our planning strategies and service agreements incorporate bespoke community involvement strategies tailored to project proposals and our client's objectives, not because it is favoured by planning authorities but because knowing the type and depth of likely objections, what measures could be employed to mitigate or over-come them and level of public support for a proposed development is very useful and can assist with adjusting / fine tuning client's proposals, dispel rumours and ultimately increase the chances of success.