Somebody once told me that every single councillor is there because they believe they can do good. I honestly believe that. I, however, do not expect every councillor to immediately have the knowledge to be able to engage with the council officers in a constructive manor.
So when it comes to public realm schemes, councillors “trust” the officers to get it right, or even trust other councillors with more expertise in that area to help them get it right. So a project is delivered, campaign groups and residents watch and then begin to give feedback through letters/email/talking/shouting. The councillors then go back to the officers and “get it fixed”.
This is how Cycle Bath had some of the posts moved on the Widcombe scheme. It was nonsensical to put the lamp post in the middle of the path and not on the edge out of the way.
It’s a very re-active approach, costly and time consuming. You wait for it to be built, then raise a concern.
A better pro-active approach that tries to get the design right at the beginning of the process is needed.
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