Lack of Public Engagement: Local communities are fed-up with having things done to them

I have just been reading about what is going on with plans to develop London's Old Kent Road, and how unhappy many of the existing businesses there about the lack of early, meaningful, engagement leading to consultation. This has prompted me to repeat here what I have said about proper public engagement and consultation in the past.

The Supreme Court in 2014 confirmed the ‘Sedley’ or ‘Gunning’ principles that consultation must, in order to be considered fair:

• “take place when the proposal is still at a formative stage;
•  that sufficient reasons for the proposal be put forward to allow for intelligent consideration and response;
•  that adequate time be given for that consideration and response;
•  and that responses be conscientiously taken into account”,

and went a step further, extending the interpretation for fairness to include consultation on alternatives.

How many so called Public Consultations, whether relating to Town Planning, or Government Policy, actually meet these principles?

Very few I would say.

The above is a good encapsulation of the principles of public consultation, which has been provided by @JustSpace7.

The Mayor of London and the individual London Boroughs must, and need to, undertake proper and meaningful engagement and consultation. It seems that very few are doing it properly and, in response, many local communities are beginning to fightback because they are fed-up with having things done to them rather being at the focus of the process and with not being considered as worthy of gaining many, if any, of the benefits of change.