English to Greek Other Construction / Civil Engineering town planning

An inventory of the findings of the surveys, shared more or less among the PICT countries, are presented in the table below:

How can participation be facilitated? Findings of the PICT surveys

What the Planners said:

Allow involvement through identification: Low threshold, understandable visualisations are crucial for good communication with the neighbourhood population. Inhabitants need to be able to locate different activities on plans.
Allow involvement through exchange: Adapt the language and modes of representation for a larger audience to understand.
Give the context of a specific project both in terms of space and time and make it understood by the public. Communicating the complexity of the project is an important challenge.
Identify needs of different groups and clearly explain how the proposals can be an answer to differing and often conflicting demands.
A brief module should be included during their education, explaining why the public should get involved in planning decisions; planners need to appreciate the benefits from collaboration with the public, or even co-production of small scale plans in some local contexts.
A flexible training course with a minimum core module and potential for add-on modules should be developed to suit the busy workloads of planners.
Encourage the use of computer aided design and Internet and discover the benefits of e-communication.
Planners should involve local people as early and as many times as possible and learn to set up and coordinate public consultation working groups.
It is important to not eliminate personal contact by only using internet based communication.
The benefits of public participation need to be explored with the minority of planners that do not favour this. A module on the benefits of public participation could be included within the training package, presenting for example the “Planning for Real” exercise.
Planners need to use a ‘plain’ language rather than ‘planners speak’.
In Greece, given the limited education offered on public participation in planning through the University curricula, planners need to acquire marketing, negotiation and mediation skills. Through such a curriculum it is possible to merge individual and common good, as well as promote trust between citizens and local authorities.