Public Consultation

At SCA+D we wholeheartedly believe that local people need to be fully involved in changes to the built environment around them. Too often however, public consultation is carried out in an unfocussed or un-creative manner, something which leaves people at best dissatisfied and at worst disillusioned with the process and resistent to even necessary change.

We often hear of people being apathetic when in reality it is previous poor experience of box-ticking questionnaires or of lack of feedback that leaves people unwilling to re-engage. 'Consultation fatigue' does NOT exist, it is merely the result of poor engagement by those organisations charged to undertake the consultation.

We believe that public consultation needs to be focussed (asking only questions that are relevant), targeted (involving people a precise points during the procurement process), and creative (residents are often 'local experts' and have a much more sophisticated understanding of a place than they are often given credit for). Couple this with an understanding that change takes time (often over many years) and there is a need for consistent and open publicity and the results can be exciting indeed.

SCA+D has undertaken succesful participative programmes, most recently in Southampton as part of the council's Estates Regeneration Programme, building upon CEO, Paul Grover's many years of experience, first with the Architecture Foundation and then as founding Director of the Glass-House.

If you are about to engage on large-scale regeneration programmes, SCA+D would be very interested in discussing this with you and can offer tailor-made solutions to suit the needs of your project.