Locals couldn’t care less about your technical soundness…

I hate to be that person to tell you this, but you do know that no amount of clever technical arguments is ever going to win over locals in their perception if your planning application. 

It’s like Brexit I fear… some of us followed the logical, if somewhat slightly technical arguments of the “Remain” campaign, but at the end of the day, “Leave” won the referendum with a promise of £350million per week for the NHS painted on the side of a bus (complete codswallop as it turns out) 

Sadly, this week I have heard again from a number of applicants who ended up in a position where they had very sound technical applications and site promotions that simply fell flat on its face. One site in particular had an opposition group formed by the local Councillor who opposed its allocation. The site was then allocated in the Local Plan and it made not a jot of difference to the locals, in fact, it inspired the to become more vociferous in their campaign to stop the site being developed. The conclusion was a unanimous refusal by the Planning Committee as a mob of about 300 residents showed up at the Planning Committee. Indeed, committee members had to be escorted into the building by security… strangely enough, they were carried out shoulder high (ok, I exaggerate a bit on that). 

Local residents and Councillors may very well have a different perception of your site and the only way you can change that is by being aware of it in the first place. What are those things that residents are going to be concerned about? Unless you address them, you are not going to get the locals past them and onto the good news about your planning application. 

Again, an example from the last week. We’re working on a site where the highways consultant has done a six-month survey. They found that the usage of the road was relatively low and that the road had oodles of capacity. They also found that the average speed on the road is actually only 38mph in a 40mph zone. We then made contact with the locals and asked them about the issues… immediately the road came up as an issue. There is a problematic junction just up from the site that is causing fairly regular tailbacks and very occasionally a little boy racer in a souped-up Nissan Micra tears down the road making a noise with his free-flow exhaust and noisy little car. The perception is that the road is gridlocked 24/7 and when it is not gridlocked, it is a racetrack just waiting for a fatal accident. 

Now, you could either go in and bamboozle the locals with technical guff and tell them they are stupid and their perception is misguided…and get them all campaigning against you.. or… you could listen to them and tell them how your development will generate the funds to improve the road (and HOW it’s going to do it). 

Sounds familiar? Call me! 

Henry