A survey of chief planning officer attitudes towards planning consultants Available to Purchase

Recent increases in the use of planning consultants by local authorities prompted an interest in the decision‐making process. Initial interviews uncovered some negative attitudes towards consultants;however, a follow‐up mail survey of 240 chief planning officers revealed that these attitudes were not wide‐spread. Attitudes were significantly more favourable when decision makers had commissioned similar work previously, were currently using consultants, had moved through the stages of the purchasing process and had been involved with consultants a number of times before. Favourableness of attitudes also increased in proportion to the cumulative expenditure on consultants over the past three years and as the size of the planning department increased.