New Scottish guidance on effective community engagement has advice and lessons for communities across the UK

The Scottish Government has updated advice – containing lessons for communities across the UK – on ensuring communities can effectively engage in the planning system. Engagement with a wide range of interests is essential to ensure that harder to reach groups have the opportunity to get involved in planning - and in ways that best suit their needs, it says. The document encourages engagement with communities from the earliest possible stage to enable views to be reflected in development plans and on individual proposals.

Planning Advice Note 3/2010 Community Engagement is available online

The advice illustrates that different groups of people will want or need to be involved depending on the nature and scale of the development and whether the engagement is linked to the development plan. On development planning, it is good practice to ensure that engagement is broadly representative of a cross section of all communities and includes a range of interests such as community councils, community planning partnerships, local traders and other businesses, amenity societies, developers, investors and statutory consultees and agencies.

While some community groups and individuals will be well organised and represented, others will not and may be less able to engage in the preparation of development plans, or in making their views known on individual proposals. Research has shown that the under 35s and those in full-time employment are less likely to engage in planning.