PAE worked with Stockport MBC on workshops with local community groups to support their consultation on the key principles in the emerging local plan. We worked with the Communities team within the Council to reach out to the many community organisations and individuals they identified who might not otherwise have participated in the discussions around the emerging local plan. These included representatives from local charities and community interest companies, faith communities, and those working with young people.
We ran three online workshops, each focusing on a different district within the inner urban area of the borough. The workshops generated wide ranging discussion which we were able to feed back to the council in written notes on the range of themes discussed and points raised, without attributing comments to attendees. This note was subsequently agreed with the panel Chair in each case and then provided as feedback on the project, both to the individual attendees and to the local planning authority. Each workshop was chaired by a member of the PAE Northwest Task Group, along with a chartered volunteer as a panellist and a licentiate note taker.
“Our work with PAE helped us undertake some extra engagement with our communities as part of our process to develop our new Local Plan. Getting genuine and honest feedback from our communities, particularly those who historically do not engage with us on planning issues, has been really important and the independent input of PAE helped facilitate this. The workshops have formed a important part of our wider toolkit for engaging and consulting with our communities and we look forward to continuing to work with PAE as our Local Plan progresses”, Service Manager (Place Planning), Stockport Council