WHEN there is consultation on a strategic plan such as the Core Strategy for Wiltshire or the Local Plan for Swindon there used to be more comments from the developers than from members of the public. There are long documents to read before reaching an opinion and who has the time to do that?

However, by the time it comes to a planning application, it may be too late. The plans, known as forward plans, set the scene. The councils have a good system for alerting people whose email addresses they have when there is a statutory consultation. Many have now found that it is helpful to become involved in order to have their say and avoid being taken unawares by the march of houses on the skyline.

Having a say may mean more than just sending an email. It may mean alerting others and getting them to write in, getting in touch with the parish council and the local Wiltshire councillor and watching for the results of the consultation. It may also mean reading other documents to back up a case and speaking at an examination in public or an inquiry. A group in Chippenham made excellent responses to an inquiry on a draft plan and were rewarded when the inspector held similar views.

Democracy means hard work and perseverance and thank goodness for the media.

When you have done all that, you realise the benefits of Neighbourhood Development Plans. The Government has talked about localism and has said it is for the people to decide where development should go. While it may take a lot of time and hard work to go through all the processes to get a Neighbourhood Plan adopted, once there it has the force of law.

Consultation seems to take different forms. Sometimes there is consultation on the issues and options before a draft plan is produced. Developers can be required to consult on a major development before they submit a planning application.

In this case stamina is needed on the part of the public to make sure they do not miss out on the second, formal consultation when the application is submitted. For some matters, there is the tick-box form where a simple tick or cross may not allow for a 'provided that' type of answer and is therefore usually unsatisfactory. There is consultation when one has the feeling that the decision has already been taken and it is just a procedural exercise that has to be gone through. There can also be consultation where a case is set out fully giving the pros and cons with time allowed for the matter to come to the top of the pile and be given careful thought.

Consultation is recognised as being important and necessary so imagine the surprise when it is discovered that there has never been any public consultation in North Wiltshire over plans to improve M4 Junction 16 which is in their area. The improvements, originally mooted in 2002, have now reached the stage of being granted Government funding. Transport consultants have said that improving the circulation at the junction could increase congestion on local roads. Now the press release says it is to “ensure the junction can cope with forecasted future traffic levels and cater for future development in the surrounding areas. A key part of the strategy is to support economic growth...and open up new areas for development.”

Imagine the surprise also when items for discussion have been requested to be on the agenda on at least three area boards but the agenda, set by some invisible hand, has not included them. Woe betide a local chairman who goes against the invisible hand. Sitting through presentations of what others think it would be good for the public to hear can be incredibly boring. Perhaps that is why attendance at area boards is not as high as it might be.

It takes one's breath away to see a decision taken that appears to have been delegated without holding any consultation beforehand, for example over an environmental impact assessment (EIA) or over charging certain bodies for visits to recycling sites.

Consultation is about something that matters to people. There has just been the example of the EU referendum where people were given a choice about their future. Many people registered for the first time so they had the opportunity to vote. Everyone of the age to vote was consulted and able to exercise their democratic right.