Community engagement informs planning

Scheme Updates are a significant milestone in the HMR Pathfinder Programme, marking the point where Pathfinders set out their future activity and how they intend to meet their strategic objectives. Robust community engagement recently informed this planning phase in one area, providing insights which will help guide and shape developments over the next ten years.

Gateway HMR Pathfinder

Their mission is “for the Hull and East Riding housing market area to be a place where people choose to live, a place of prosperous, diverse and sustainable communities and vibrant neighbourhoods, providing an enviable quality of life for all”.

The Scheme Update was the perfect opportunity to highlight progress to date. QA Research supported Gateway through the process, providing research that tested levels of support for and agreement with interventions in specific areas.  

Gateway implemented a large communication and consultation programme to involve residents in decision making and to test proposals. This work included:  

• one-to-one consultations with residents
• a series of public information events
• newsletters, website and media coverage of the consultation programme
• local engagement with hard to reach groups

The research built on the goodwill established by this work, beginning with a large scale telephone survey designed to build a picture of resident opinions. A number of issues were of particular interest to Gateway, including:

• local awareness of their proposals
• the degree of support for their proposals
• which specific types of intervention were popular
• levels of satisfaction with consultation and communication processes

Secondary data from face to face surveys was then analysed and compared with  information from the 850 telephone interviews and exit surveys conducted at consultation events.

Supporting community-focussed planning

Clear and statistically reliable findings on resident opinions were presented to Gateway. The findings have been used to inform a consultation programme which has community engagement at its core.