Members of so-called 'hard to reach' communities actively withdraw from consultation on planning decisions in their local area unless there is evidence that participation will meaningfully impact decisions, a new report has found.
The Cardiff University report, Community Voices Cardiff, reveals a mistrust among community members of buzzwords and the negative implications of consultation language which can make empty promises, create barriers, or can be triggering if not followed up with tangible action.
Funding for consultation should instead go directly to communities, so it can be led by trusted and trained community members in a way that's appropriate, relevant, interesting and accessible for different groups, the authors argue.
Professor Mhairi McVicar, Project Lead for Cardiff University's Community Gateway and one of the report's authors, said: "The primary aim of our project was to work with communities to establish guidance for making community consultation as effective as possible.
"And that's really about communities first of all knowing they have a right to a voice in the planning of their cities but also knowing how to get involved with it so they can meaningfully impact any decision making about the future of their city."
The Cardiff team, completed by Mymuna Soleman of Privilege Café and Shoruk Nekeb, a Welsh School of Architecture graduate and co-chair of the Grange Pavilion Youth Forum, worked together with an advisory group of local organisations and residents to setup an urban room in the Grange Pavilion where people could drop in, meet or run activities to share and discuss information about their local area.
The Community Voices Cardiff report shares the findings from a year-long programme of in-person, online, individual and public conversations, events and workshops on how to do community consultation differently.
