It’s box-ticking, not consulting

As “the public” we seem to be consulted more than ever before on decisions that affect our lives. Kent county and Maidstone borough councils alone currently want to know what we think on nine wide-ranging issues, from tax and transport to human rights and equality.

And that’s before you consider the numerous planning exhibitions.

But despite all these calls for our views, just how much do our opinions matter?

Take the decision by Royal Mail to close Bank Street’s Post Office and move it to within the WHSmith store in Week Street. We were told this move was shaped by us, after a consultation lasting six weeks. Yet it took just four weeks between that ending and the postal service announcing its plans, and then just another month before the counters shut for good.

While it is true that concerns about parking will be addressed off the back of the comments, you would be forgiven for thinking that the majority of the planning had been done before the first feedback was received.

Similarly, at a consultation on a major development in Detling this week, many residents went along intent on exercising their right to comment, but told us they were convinced that their presence would do little to change the outcome.

So we may be being cynical, but it seems that the word consultation is increasingly being seen less as an open dialogue, and more as a boxticking exercise. It’s up to these firms and authorities to restore our faith in the process, or risk apathy about engaging with these issues.