I’ve sat through dozens of community consultations over the years—some crackled with energy and sparked real change, others just left a room full of people feeling ignored and fed up. As a community planner and facilitator, I’ve learned that a good...
If you’ve ever sat through a town hall meeting where the decision was clearly made weeks ago, you know the particular exhaustion of a consultation that’s just theatre. I’ve been on both sides of that table. Over twenty-odd years working across...
I’ve spent more than twenty years in community development, and if there’s one thing that stands out, it’s this: the best plans come together when people actually feel heard. Too often, consultations are just box-ticking exercises. Residents get invited, they speak,...
Community consultation is more than a box-ticking exercise. When done well, it shapes decisions that affect people’s lives, builds trust between institutions and the public, and uncovers insights that no spreadsheet can capture. As someone who has designed and run consultations...
There’s a quiet danger in assuming a community consultation is simply a meeting. It isn’t. A genuine consultation is a structured, principled exchange of ideas where the outcome isn’t predetermined, and the voices that shape it are genuinely valued. Dr. Fiona...
You’ll notice something the moment you start planning a community consultation: it’s never just a meeting. It’s about building a pocket of space where people actually feel heard, where decisions get shaped by lived experience, and where the process itself quietly...