ABSTRACT
The political impetus to increase local involvement in planning decisions is perhaps the main force for change, and the advent of Localism in 2011 has led to a wider variety of means by which developers, neighbourhood groups and local authorities may do so. In addition to the tried and tested means of consultation, such as exhibitions, surveys, newsletters and focus groups, new forms of participatory planning enable us to involve people very effectively in the early stages of urban design, replacing largely quantitative techniques with those which enable genuine dialogue and development of ideas. Online communication has had an enormous impact on community engagement. Online consultation will mature over the coming years and become better integrated with other forms of consultation. Tactics, both online and offline, are likely to become increasingly qualitative in nature, although the easy accessibility of polling websites and apps will allow individuals to generate quantitative data and use it to force change.
