Accessibility and Public Transport Research at UCL
Public Participation Processes in Transport (PUPPIT)
Description
Public participation is of exceptional importance if Government wishes
to adopt - and be seen to adopt - inclusion in its decision making. Decisions
are often seen by the public as coming from on high with no concern for
local feeling, needs or outlooks. In the past, government has encouraged
local authorities to consult with the public in the process of adopting
plans and policies. In too many cases consultation has been minimal - if
present at all - and carried out in a way that enables the authority to
“tick the box” to assure central government that the public has been consulted
while retaining little or no regard for the public’s views. This “tick
box culture” has led to a general feeling amongst the public that they
are not consulted, or if they are it is to no avail.
The PUPPIT project will take the methodology and outcomes discussed
by Tyler & Brown (2000), extend and apply
them to the implementation of some accessible bus stops in Brighton and
Hove as part of Brighton and Hove Council's (BHC) programme of improving
accessibility to public transport.
To achieve this, the following objectives will be met:
-
to carry out and facilitate a public participation exercise related to
BHC’s accessible bus stop programme
-
to monitor and evaluate the process to produce a meaningful assessment
of participation in the decision process
-
to facilitate training in public participation processes for the local
authority personnel
The PUPPIT project will carry out a public participation exercise associated
with the design of bus stops in Brighton and Hove as part of BHC’s on-going
project to redesign all its bus stops to make them fully accessible. This
will provide a concrete example of decision making in which the public
can be involved and will allow evaluation of, and comparison with, previous
and current consultation exercises carried out as part of the same project.
The incorporation of the public participation meetings into the “standard”
implementation process accords neatly with BHC’s structural change from
a centralised to neighbourhood-based approach to decision making, with
the associated emphasis on local participation that this will bring.
Contact
Nick Tyler
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Last updated June 2001
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