‘With’ and not ‘to’ – the key to unlocking communities

In recent many important major infrastructure projects at both a local and national level have been significantly delayed and in some cases stopped because of a failure to obtain appropriate approval and levels of community acceptance. This report considers this first in the historical context, and then in the context of the UK since the Second World War. The topic is considered from a number of perspectives and topical case studies are used to illustrate how developing legislation linked with innovative techniques will allow engineers to work ‘with’ local communities, as opposed to doing things ‘to’ them. Hopefully, this will allow infrastructure projects at both a local and strategic level to be taken forward at an appropriate scale and expediency. The paper further identifies some of the skills engineers will need to do this, some ‘do’s and ‘don’t's, and concludes with some newly developing tools and techniques that provide opportunities for the future.