That the public has a right to have a say on planning issues was enshrined in planning law in 1969 with the Town and Country Planning Act. Right from the very beginning it was difficult to implement, partly because of confusions around interpretation that remain to this day.

There is no process in a planning department to evaluate the quality of a consultation so the race to the bottom has been quick. No wonder trust in developers is so low. No wonder consultation can be such a hostile and even traumatic experience for those at the front line. No wonder teams resort to a tick box approach, sometimes – as one developer admitted to me – making consultations as difficult to access as possible. On a good day 3% of a population might have a say on a planning decision.

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