My first screw up
They say you learn a lot from your mistakes. If those lessons scale to the size of your mistake, I took a university course for my first lesson in community engagement.
If you haven’t read the first part of the story behind Mobility Lab, I suggest that you check it out before reading on.
John was right you know. Consultation really was a basic process. For about 6 months I kept up the gig in planning. House extension, after house extension, after house extension. The same routine day in, day out. Send the letters to the highway authority and the parish council. Go out and put the site notice up. No old ladies this time. Or any time. The most that I got out of consultation was angry letters from neighbours who clearly don’t get on with one another, bringing in every beef apart from planning issues.
The woman who said that their neighbours couldn’t have planning permission because “it would encourage ne’er do wells and single mothers to hang out at their house more” was a personal favourite. The name that she gave was H. Bucket. I swear that is true.
