6. User Communities

The potential numbers of people who can benefit from effective public participation make such processes worthwhile as they can benefit whole communities and provide the necessary input into difficult problems. Too often in the past the public have been seen as getting in the way of implementing and driving forward policy. It has often been the case though that a lack of public consultation has led to future problems within communities when they are ignored and not asked their view. Exercises such as Planning for Real^® in the traditional sense and also complemented by the type of system developed for Slaithwaite can provide a community with a voice with which to express their opinions and ideas about the places where they live and work. Community groups and organisations such as Colne Valley Trust, other non-Governmental organisations, pressure groups and the Local Authorities themselves can all benefit from the use of effective public participation techniques.

Collaborative public consultation in local decision making and planning, whether relating to conservation, development or conflict resolution can take place through web based systems allowing increased public use. Due to the Internets ability to make information available to anyone with access all the time and also without any geographical constraints, the 24/7 concept, greater participation by all user communities is envisaged over the next 5 years or so. In the case of a local authority planning document, for example the Unitary Development Plan which KMC has produced, future public inquires and consultations on revisions and updates could be carried out across the WWW at all stages of the process. This could range from the initial public consultation, through information gathering from the public and building cases for and against particular policies and/or developments etc.

Since the PFR day in June 1998 several local authorities throughout the UK have increased the amount of information they provide on the web. While none have the interactive two-way capabilities of the system we have developed yet, many of them are actively investigating the potential of undertaking similar kinds of web based public participation processes. As the web continues to increase in popularity the type of system which has been tested in Slaithwaite is likely to be applied in similar situations in other parts of the country. This will hopefully allow a more transparent process in local environmental decision making.