Re-Designing Planning Policy Processes and Embedding Technology: The Case of Neighbourhood Planning

Abstract

Neighbourhood planning provided citizens with new rights through the Localism Act 2011, empowering them to organise together to produce their own policy which would be adopted by local planning authorities. By December 2020, over 2700 communities had embarked on the neighbourhood planning process with just under 1000 plans adopted. However, challenges remain in the way neighbourhood planning is enacted by citizens with a complex process, uneven geographical take up and a lack of appropriate support for citizens. At a broader level, citizen participation in policymaking processes has shown a contested picture over many decades with calls for more and better participation whilst questions of the level of influence such participation has on decisions have been raised. Furthermore, the configuration of citizen participation has long been questioned, particularly in relation to the methods used to reach out to communities. Alongside this, research regarding digital technology for policymaking and citizen participation has increased but has yet to have an impact in practice. In this research, I explore how digital and non-digital tools could be designed to better support citizens to shape places through the example of the neighbourhood planning policy process. I engaged with neighbourhood planning groups and planners to learn from their experiences, particularly centring citizens’ needs in considering the need for support in the citizen-led policy tool. Using an action research approach, I used a cycle of action and reflection to inform research design, enabling participants to help direct research through their own experiences. To understand how citizens enact the neighbourhood planning process and explore the use of digital tools, I engaged in an exploratory deployment of a participatory media technology, then moved to deliver interactive workshops to explore the neighbourhood planning process in-depth and co-designed new modes of digital and non-digital engagement. Through this research, I first demonstrate the complexity of neighbourhood planning, exploring the nuances of the process from a citizens’ perspective and, second, I identify both opportunities and barriers to the use of digital modes of participation. Through identifying the issues within the neighbourhood planning process, I put forward approaches to designing better support mechanisms to enable citizens to shape places, including two key design principles, cross-disciplinary design thinking and inclusive design, which can ensure an inclusive and equitable approach to the design of policy and support tools. I demonstrate how these design principles should manifest within the neighbourhood planning context and provide recommendations for specific policy changes and the development of digital and non-digital support. Ultimately, I argue the need to design and embed digital and non-digital tools and technologies within a re-designed neighbourhood planning process to enable an appropriate, navigable and sustainable citizen-led policy tool where modes of participation can link directly to policy outcomes allowing citizens to shape places.