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Hydro Resource Evaluation Tool
public acceptability and engagement
How should I go about engaging the public?
How to Engage the Public: the 4 steps
There is no one formula for doing effective public engagement. Every small scale hydro project is different – particularly in terms of the characteristics of the place that the project is located in, the nature of the local community, local formal and informal politics, geography and history. There is however a common ‘engagement process’ or series of steps that can be progressed through in order to determine what is appropriate in any one situation and to formulate a project-specific engagement strategy. Follow the links for the each of 4 steps that we recommend you work through:
Step 1: Get the context first.
Make sure that you collect as much information as possible about the context surrounding your potential project: the history of the site (if relevant); any ownership, access and rights issues (e.g. ‘riparian’ rights held by landowners – usually angling) including public rights of way; grid connection possibilities.
Step 2: Identify the key players.
Identify as many key players as possible, perhaps by brainstorming with others from the area. The more people are involved in the early stages in identifying as many networks as they can think of, the more comprehensive your engagement will be and the less likely it will be that you suddenly face an unexpected surprise, a stakeholder who is angry that they weren’t consulted for example.
Step 3: “Test the water”.
Even before any formal process of consultation or engagement is begun, putting out feelers will enable you to assess how much need there is for what degree of engagement. In terms of acceptability, this will mean identifying people who definitely want to be kept ‘on board’ with the progress of the project, and those who should be included as valid stakeholders or affected parties. This ‘testing’ stage can be combined with step 2 if the invitation to different parties to offer their thoughts on the principle of the project identifies interest and concerns.
Step 4: Design the engagement process.
As we have stressed, each project will be unique in the need for engagement if the purpose is to secure acceptance. It is costly or time-consuming to do too much in the way of engagement if there is general support for the project anyway. While it is always better to err on the side of being too inclusive (in terms of informing and involving as many groups and individuals as possible), it does not make sense to waste scant resources on preaching to the converted. Depending on the way in which the project is set up, active engagement of different publics may be a necessary factor anyway e.g. in involving supporters as share-holders in a community scale scheme.
By way of comparison, here is another community consultation outline on the website of an environmental consultancy:
- “Understand the community, the key stakeholders and the local representatives. Ensure you know the local community, key issues and personalities before you approach anyone.
- Brief key players early. Inform them before engaging the community in wider consultation. Their comments can add real impetus and insight into proposed planning applications.
- Engage the wider community in an open and transparent way. Ensure that you consult widely enough to satisfy local stakeholders and officers.” [http://www.greenissues.com/learning.asp?idno=65]
And the following points of advice are taken from a document aimed at people involved in scoping for potential hydro-power development opportunities over a broader area, such as regional development agencies:
“1) Find a key partner who is actively involved in the small hydro approval or planning process to act as a leader
This could be a local authority, the prefect, the local water agency, a national park or regional park, etc. The important thing is that there is a leader who will keep the process going through the administrative treacle that will always threaten to overwhelm it, and won’t take no for an answer.
2) Get key local stakeholders involved
You are going to need to all the support you can get from those representing the different interests affected by small hydro. You need therefore to involve them in the appraisal of sites, in promoting sustainable projects and in selling the message….
5) Get information from universally accepted expertise
It is important to involve respected and independent experts in evaluating resources – for instance archaeological heritage, water quality. The acceptability of your plan will depend on it.
6) Integrate your plan into the statutory planning documents if at all possible
The plan will have that much greater weight if it is part of the statutory process and this will force the different government and local government bodies to take account of it. There are various possibilities, and the priority depends on the approval process in the country concerned – local development plan, regional strategic plan, climate change strategy, etc…
8) Allow adequate time
Plans take time, and if the local community is to be adequately involved, a lot of time. But time, and the involvement of the local community, gives you the chance to produce a document with weight. Don’t underestimate this and allow years, not months.
9) Search for synergies
Small hydro can have other benefits. Restoring historic mills for example allows one to maintain them as a local tourism and heritage resource. Using river bed structures to produce energy means that there may be someone with an interest in maintaining them – important for river regulation. Search these out and promote them since these may be stronger arguments for your project than the energy produced.
10) Go public
There will always be interests that don’t want to participate, or simply say “No!” out of fear, “Let’s ignore this proposal and it will go away”. The planning process must be a public process. You are trying to make people participate and peer pressure helps here. Once you involve them in a team working towards the same end, sustainability, you should find that solutions are found to conflicts of interest, and they are less frightened of the problems.”(TEN LESSONS TO REMEMBER WHEN PLANNING FOR SMALL HYDRO. SPLASH (2005) Best practices guide For Small Hydro, http://www.energie-cites.eu/IMG/pdf/splash_best_practice_guide_en.pdf)
