In any building project, from residential developments to community spaces, public consultation is essential. For project planners, architects, and developers, consultations provide a wealth of data to inform decision making. In turn, this helps shape a project that best serves the community and helps to avoid pitfalls in later stages.
Even with its benefits, many can find public consultation to be a daunting process. This is particularly so when it comes to navigating data collection and analysis.
Why consultation data matters
A successful public consultation can provide valuable insights, highlight community priorities and identify potential objections early on. This process is no longer a regulatory checkbox exercise, if done well, consultation data is an asset. It can mitigate risks and optimise designs to reflect a community’s actual needs.
A short survey asked town planners what a successful consultation process looked like for them. While all answers focused on the value of quality over quantity of data, 61% said the ‘number of useful insights’ gained from consulting marked success. While only conducted among a small pool of participants, it’s arguable that this reflects attitudes and trends of others in the field.
When carefully collected and analysed, consultation data allows planners to identify community concerns and preferences, optimise and inform resource allocation and strengthen the project’s planning approvals stance. So, what steps can you take to best harness the data gathered by a public consultation?
Set clear goals for your consultation
The first and most crucial step to get right is to clarify the objectives of your consultation before gathering data. For example, seeking feedback on a particular design aspect would require different data processing. You may also need to consider designing materials for people in their first language if there is a large population of people in the area with English as a second language.
Outlining these goals upfront allows a clearer picture for the remainder of the process. It also allows you to better tailor your data collection methods for more precise insights. You can yield actionable information that will help with designing more targeted and purposeful questions and feedback forms.
Additional public consultation goals might look like:
Gauging public opinion on the community impact
Identifying any environmental concerns
Collecting input on amenities, public spaces, or public transport
Understanding the impact of the project on local businesses
Choose the right data collection methods
Once you’ve sought out your data, you need to use the right data collection methods to get the most from your public consultation. While surveys and public meetings are still a popular method of consultation, digital tools can also be of use. In certain cases, they may broaden your reach or help you to catch a more diverse range of perspectives. Afterwards, digital tools can also be great for analysis of data.
Short surveys don’t have to mean short or vague answers. They can actually provide a high level of quality answers or allow you to delve into specific aspects of the project. Whether digital or in-person, short surveys have been used time and time again for consultations for a reason—they provide great data.
Public forums in town halls or local clubs encourage all walks of life from the community to engage directly with project planners. These can be held over a number of days or times (if you have the budget) or online to ensure you can speak to as many people as possible. In these spaces you can also provide visual aids such as drawings or interactive maps for the community. This can help add spatial context to feedback which is great if this is where you’d like your data to be pinpointed.
Focus groups provide more nuanced answers than a short survey would typically give. Again, both in-person or digitally, these are ideal when you need a deeper understanding of an issue.
Overall, choosing a blend of methods can help to ensure you are collecting both quantitative and qualitative data. This should give you a comprehensive picture of the response to a project and answer the clear goals set out at the start.
Organise and analyse your data
To make the most of the data gained in your public consultation, organising and analysing it is an important step. From the beginning, you need to think about how to manage and process your findings. Most consultations work with structured data such as survey responses and also unstructured data like interviews.
You’ll need to take preliminary steps to organise your data by conducting data cleaning to remove duplicate answers, inconsistencies or anything that is irrelevant. This will help to save time in the long run and just provide a clearer outlook.
From there, it can be grouped and categorised and how you do this will depend on your project and its goals. For example, compiling all answers related to the importance of green spaces under an ‘environmental’ category. Concerns about traffic congestion would go under a transport category and so on.
When it comes to analysing the data, you may need to take both a qualitative and a quantitative approach. The data may show you immediate trends in preferences or concerns. The more nuanced insights can then help to further shape these responses and trends that have been identified.
Data collection and analysis are only as valuable as the actions they inform. Once you have a solid understanding of the community’s thoughts and priorities, you can begin to adjust your project. This could look like redesigning certain elements, considering traffic congestion, making room for more green spaces and so on. Showing responsiveness to feedback can also strengthen the community’s trust in the project and make regulatory approvals smoother.
The power of data in public consultations
Data from public consultations doesn’t have to fall under a one-time use either. The data gathered can inform future or related projects. While elements will differ, as will community opinions, the previous process can help to establish a framework for ongoing community engagement. Planners can build a reputation for responsive and community-drive planning, develop an insightful database across locations and make use of historical data.
Overall, harnessing data in consultation planning can help design projects that resonate with the public and address their needs. In following these steps, regulatory requirements can be met, and long-term value goes into the project.
With careful planning, a well-thought-out data-driven consultation can be one of the most powerful tools in your toolkit. For advice or guidance with planning, hosting and reviewing public consultations, DCA PR can help.
Our services span: consultation strategy, stakeholder management, digital consultations, consultation events, construction communications and Statement of Community Involvement requirements. Find out more by getting in touch with us today.
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