Ein cyf/Our ref: NICW/24/DCSB/WGIBPAC

Eich Ref/Your Ref: WG49599

Infrastructure (Wales) Bill Team

Welsh Government

22nd July 2024

Dear Sir / Madam

Infrastructure (Wales) Bill – Requirements for Pre-Application Consultation and Methods of Engaging Stakeholders and Local Communities

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the consultation paper regarding the Infrastructure (Wales) Bill and the requirements for pre application consultation and methods of engaging stakeholders and local communities.

As mentioned in our joint response with the Future Generation’s Commissioner to the Senedd’s Climate Change, Economy and Infrastructure Committee consultation on the draft Bill, we believe that, of the 5 Wellbeing of Future Generations Act ways of working, involvement is seen as one of the least applied in relation to the planning system.

The National Infrastructure Commission for Wales (NICW) has recently visited the coastal community of Borth in Ceredigion and heard from them directly in how the felt disengaged from proposals relating to coastal flood protection. These were proposals being brought forward from statutory bodies whom the WFG Act applies. We are concerned that private developers, whom the Act does not apply to will be even less inclined to follow the principles of the Act unless required to do so.

Involving people – beyond just consultations – in shaping their communities and places is a key aspect, through which the planning process can contribute to the WFG Act. We would like to see the importance of involving people in planning highlighted and strengthened through the Bill’s secondary legislation.

We believe that the requirements for infrastructure developers / promoters should be explicitly required to demonstrate how they have applied the Ways of Working through

requirements laid on in secondary legislation. We believe that the secondary legislation should commit the Welsh Government to publish statutory guidance on effective community engagement; this will ensure that this can be updated in the future with relative ease.

Good practice exists in many places; One examples include the ‘Future Energy Landscapes’ community engagement toolkit developed by the Centre for Sustainable

Energy. This was used in our research report, published last year on renewable energy is just one method on how communities can be brought together to talk about infrastructure projects.

Citizen Juries / Assemblies, such as those used in Bude are an effective way to gauge local opinion and have been used in a variety of scenarios. NICW will be using this method in their current project to engage with communities on climate change and its impact on infrastructure. We look forward to sharing our findings with the Welsh Government on this, next year.

The requirement for both specific in-person and online engagement techniques should be included in the regulations as a minimum.

We consider your suggestion of prospective applicants being required to discuss their pre-application consultation intentions with local planning authorities and / or Natural Resources Wales to gain information relating to local community groups, appropriate venues for events etc. is a very good idea. However, this should also be extended to community and town councils who will have more detailed local knowledge than local authorities on the types of events which are likely to attract the community and any existing events which engagement could accompany, where there is already going to be significant amounts of the community attending.

We note the existing DNS requirements of posting site displays, newspaper adverts and written notifications. However, these are very antiquated methods of engagement with little relevance to the 21st Century. The requirements should specify eye-catching posters and displays to grab the interest of the public. We note that the City of Toronto has such requirements and includes templates for developers; these could be specified in Welsh secondary legislation and given more detail in statutory guidance.

In addition, there must be a requirement for online advertisements of the development proposed and an electronic method of gathering opinion which goes beyond sending comments by email. This online presence should be through the provision of a dedicated website for more detail and innovative engagement techniques. This could include posts on existing mainstream social media platforms (such as community pages) but should also include the rapidly emerging open source 'Fediverse' network of social media. Again, the requirement to do so could be laid in secondary legislation with the detail outlined in statutory guidance.

Whilst we believe that these requirements can ‘flex’ to take account of the scale and type of development, it should be remembered that, by definition, these developments are of national importance, and therefore the statutory basis should reflect this. Additionally, this may require public engagement that goes beyond locally impacted communities when considering those who may have an interest in commenting on the scheme and taking part in any engagement projects. This is particularly so in the case of developments which are likely to have a significant visual impact over a wider area or may improve accessibility and service provision in areas distant from the application site itself.

With regards to your questions on the use of the Welsh language, we believe that regulations should stipulate that the use of Welsh should be treated no-less favourably than English in all application engagement, this includes the provision of Welsh-speaking representatives of the developer at engagement events.

Yours faithfully,

Dr David Clubb Stephen Brooks
NICW Chair NICW Lead Commissioner