A neighbourhood should be a place that develops according to the needs of its residents. Therefore, it stands to reason that residents hold the key to ensuring that any development serves those needs. Failing to involve residents at the outset calls into question the motives of developers and councils, and directly contravenes international best practice for community consultation.

Indeed, effective stakeholder consultation is fundamental to securing sustainable, equitable and durable outcomes in any development, and a very extensive toolkit already exists. Yet in Merton, consultations are too often run in ways where meaningful public input seems to be the last thing that developers and the Council want.

We advocate a complete transformation of the way that consultations are conducted. We would draw from the aforementioned toolkit and, in doing so, include provision to open up the very start of the development process to the public. We would strive for best practice at every stage of a consultation, and it would become an active – not a passive, as it is now – mechanism, whereby all residents are invited to take part. The journey should begin with open access ideation and design workshops, held on multiple occasions and engaging multiple demographics. Residents must be informed well in advance, and free to make up their mind however they choose. And continuous input mechanisms must be in place as standard, allowing residents an ongoing opportunity to make representations.

There is no reason that planning officers, developers, residents, and elected representatives should not all work together when it comes to development, rather than operate at loggerheads as we see today.