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CONSULTATION is something of a damaged concept of late, thanks to too many instances of those who consult ignoring the findings of the exercise.

The post office closures are the most topical example.

Then there's the other common flaw with consultation exercises - a failure to carry out the exercise effectively.

That is what seems to have happened in Esh Winning, where a number of residents appear to have only found out about plans to demolish their homes when a brochure outlining the plans for their estate dropped through their letter boxes.

There may well be an element of people not recognising the importance of a proposal to them individually despite it being in the public domain but, ultimately, it is incumbent on the proposer of the scheme to have made sure that all households were visited in turn to explain the scale of what is planned for the community.

Then there are consultation exercises which reveal something which one might expect an accepted wisdom.

In the case of the Durham market place statues, it is hard to imagine that anyone behind the Durham City Vision truly thought city residents would think removal of the statues would be a good thing.

But nevertheless it is a good example of an effective consultation exercise.

12:18pm Friday 30th May 2008

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