Consultation Strategy for Waltham Forest: I understand that a team of officers is working on a draft "Consultation Strategy" for the Borough, and are expecting to offer residents attending the next cycle of Community Councils the chance to comment via a form.
I've become increasingly interested in this subject (which has come up at CC meetings) - I think it's not an easy thing to get right. Here are some ramblings on the subject which I recently posted on the Walthamstow Yahoo Group:
Consultation is certainly an issue. Is it enough to give advance warning of every proposal and the be prepared to receive comments? Or must there be public discussion? How can the Council publish enough information on every proposal without turning it into a wall of unreadable gobbledeygook? What can/should be done without consultation? Isn't it true that the great mass of folk just want the Council to take care of things without disturbing them about it?
I'm still finding it hard to form a clear view of what level of "consultation" is appropriate for a particular issue. Obviously interest-groups are desperate to be consulted, but attempts to get views from residents in general get a very poor response rate. Consultation is potentially expensive and usually slow, and even very energetic campaigns like the recent one over the proposed developments along Blackhorse Lane only get half-decent numbers after heroic efforts. If the Council can't do anything without consulting, it'll probably mean it can't do very much at all. Our local "Safer Neighbourhoods" police team leafleted ... every house in their patch to get people to a consultation/priorities meeting a few weeks ago, and only 12 people turned up. How many people read those (expensive) Public Notices in the back of the Guardian every week? It's very difficult to target the "right" people!
I think there is simply vast room for improvement in the way consultation is done, but I don't think it's an easy thing to get right. Personally I'd like to see the Council website play a more important role - maybe it's time to introduce an RSS feed so we have some chance of keeping up with the sheer volume of stuff. Community Councils are one important channel and this email Group is another. Otherwise, I rely on the Guardian!
Phil Herlihy