Learn what the community wants
Checklist
To run an effective consultation exercise:
- decide who to talk to, and what you need to learn
- choose the best consultation method (or methods) for the community
- create a plan that covers all the essentials.
Creating liveable urban environments – places that are good to live, work, and play – starts with the community. A consultation process that’s well planned, well carried out, and the right style for the community, will let you learn what people value, what things they want changed, and want they want council to manage.
Remember that consultation without action is meaningless. Make sure you use the information you get, and let the community know how you’ll use it.
Should you include people from outside the urban environment? For example, you may need to include people who have made a submission to an annual plan.
Who should you talk to? What do you need to learn?
Be as clear as you can, right now, about why you’re consulting and who you want to consult with.
Checklist
Whatever method or methods you use, make sure that:
- people know why you’re consulting them, and what the information will be used for
- you are using the methods that ‘fit’ the community
- you are flexible, and can adapt your methods if you need to
- your consultation plan covers all the essentials to make consultation a success.
- Why are you consulting – what’s your purpose? Do you want information about specific parts of the urban environment? If so, which ones? Or do you want broader information on whatever the community thinks is important?
- What information do you want – and how much? Do other council units want to use it for other projects? Are there any local issues, like long-running zoning or parking disputes that might affect the questions you ask?
- Who do you want to involve from council and the community? What’s the best way of getting them involved – invitation, advertising, public notices? Do you want to consult with a wide cross-section of people, or with interest groups only? It all depends on your purpose.
When you choose your consultation method, be aware of the features (age, ethnicity, literacy levels, and so on) of the community you’ll be consulting with.
Reference material
Template
three: Consultation framework [Word doc 11kb]
Choose the right way to consult
There are almost as many ways to consult as there are people to consult with. Councils around New Zealand and overseas use a huge range of creative and effective consultation methods.
This guide describes the consultation methods used by the councils involved in the case studies and project trials for the Urban Amenity Project. They are:
- list of qualities: asking people to say how their environment fits qualities like ‘safety’ or ‘sense of place’
- three questions: asking people what they do and don’t like about their environment, and what they’d like to change
- public satisfaction surveys: asking people specific questions about their urban environment
- focus group workshops: getting people together for questions and discussion
- hui: holding marae-based consultation to learn Maori views on their urban environment
- charette: running an extended, interactive workshop about creating a good urban environment
- participatory appraisal: encouraging people to use visual feedback, like maps and photographs.
Many of these consultation methods work well together. You might, for example:
- distribute a three questions flier and hold a focus group workshop to discuss its results
- use the list of qualities during a charette or a hui
- hold a participatory appraisal exercise to establish the right questions for a survey.
Consultation doesn’t have to be expensive or drawn-out. Follow the links in this section to resources you can use to help create your own cost-effective surveys and questionnaires.
Always ask participants how they want you to measure the improvements and changes they want. If they tell you they want a ‘beautiful city’, for example, how do they want you to measure whether that’s been achieved?
