Questions for the council: consultation promises

BCC failed to involve residents in the phases prior to the bidding process.

Specifically, early breakdown of democratic representation as early as February 2019, resulted in councillors failing to advise residents about the opportunities that establishing a Neighbourhood Forum and designing a Neighbourhood Plan would have brought to the area and the community.

Also the poor quality of the engagement workshops in October and November 2023 make us concerned about the willingness of BCC and, potentially, the developer to actually deliver a comprehensive residents’ consultation in Ladywood.

At this stage, we can only acknowledge that BCC and the developer are committed to promote a pre-application consultation, well before the 21-day consultation in the post-application period and the 21-day statutory period for expressing objections during the CPO stage.

We also acknowledge that, as the 2023 Full Business Case (Appendix 2) states, the proper consultation period is due to commence in January 2024.

We thus demand that BCC and the Berkeley Group deliver on the promises made in BCC policy documents, cabinet documents, the Full Business Case and the Equality Analysis about the kind of consultation that will be carried out in the pre-application process. Failure to do so will make grounds for a judicial review against BCC.

1. BCC Consultation Principles

As the 2020 BCC Statement of Community Involvement states, pre-application consultation is not mandatory or a legal requirement (5.4) and “the City Council has not formal role in the pre-application consultations (5.5).

Yet, the Statement reads, “the Council recognises that for large or locally significant developments, it is important for developers to engage with local communities prior to the submission of a formal planning application” (5.4).

In addition, the Council “will encourage other parties to take maximum advantage of the pre-application stage” (5.5).

In this regard, “The Local Planning Authority would encourage developers to have discussions with local residents regarding future options for a site through pre-application consultation to establish if a relevant proposal might enhance social value i.e. by improving the economic, social and environmental well-being of the relevant site/area and how it might act with a view to securing that improvement” (5.6).

Importantly for residents, “any pre-application consultation should follow the general consultation principles set out in section 1 of this document” (5.5), referring to the 2020 BCC Statement of Community Involvement.

Section 1 of this document lists the consultation principles to be:

• Have a purpose and be proportionate, asking relevant questions on the issues that are to be decided on.
• Be clear and informative, using plain English that is clear to help everyone contribute to the process.
• Be open, transparent and responsive, allowing the opportunity for all to take part and showing how comments and views have been considered.
• Be targeted towards the most affected people, but also promote consultation as widely as possible.
• Promote equality through ensuring vulnerable people or disadvantaged groups are involved in the planning process and ensuring that the potential equality impact of planning policies and decisions are fully assessed.
• Promote social cohesion by involving as many sectors of the local community as possible and recognising their different consultation needs.
• Use appropriate methods to engage with people constructively whilst, at the same time, ensuring City Council resources are used in the most effective and efficient manner.
• Commit to working with partners and communities in an open and transparent manner involving all, including those with protected characteristics as identified in the Equality Act 2010.

2. Consultation promises in Ladywood

The 2023 Equality Assessment (Appendix 11) made additional commitments on the ways consultations will take place. These also constitute legitimate expectations to which we will hold both the Berkeley Group and BCC.

These are:

• “Consultation and engagement will be targeted appropriately and in a way residents and stakeholders are comfortable with.”
• “Consultation on the overall scheme proposals for the Ladywood Estate will include methods that ensure all age groups are given an opportunity to shape the plans. This will include targeted activities for both the young and the elderly.”
• “Young people are often underrepresented in planning consultations and the engagement strategy will take active steps to ensure they are given opportunities to fully engage.”
• “The risk of online consultations impacting on older citizens ability to engage will be mitigated through the availability of hard copies of documents and in person events at accessible locations.”
• “A physical hub will be located on the site to provide a location for people to find out information and ask questions, this will ensure that those who are not confident online are able to access the same information.”
• “All consultations material will be accessible. Materials will be translated on request and the engagement strategy will consider if there is a need to produce translated materials as part of the informal communication and formal notifications, for examples throughout the CPO process. Individual support provided when necessary”.
• “It is recognised that the scheme as a whole requires the loss of commercial and residential space in the short term and the implementation of the scheme will cause disruption. Further consultation and scoping work will be undertaken to understand if specific mitigation measures need to be put in place during the delivery of the various elements of the scheme to ensure that any impacts are fully understood and mitigated.”