Post-adoption training

Once the design code has been tested and adopted into use on live projects, it is helpful to offer DM officer training on how it is intended to be applied in negotiations and decision-making. For more, see ‘Laying the groundwork’.

For those closely involved in the code’s inception, such training will serve as a useful recap. For others, it is a learning opportunity critical to the overall success of the design code. It may also boost junior colleagues’ confidence in making decisions, as the Lake District Pathfinder project found.

Over the longer term, any training sessions can also serve as a forum for gathering feedback from DM officers, which should be used to improve and refine the code over time.

Challenges to successful engagement

All projects encounter unforeseen challenges, and the Pathfinder projects were no different.

One of the most significant challenges was to convince DM officers that the point of the design code is to help them, not to inconvenience or replace them. Your engagement process should recognise the possibility of DM scepticism and aim to proactively and persuasively dispel it.

The policy team leading the Gedling Borough Council project invited the LPA’s head of planning and DM to a series of meetings to ensure the document aligned with expectations and the department’s needs.

The Gedling policy team also undertook an analysis of DM casework, revealing that 78% of refused applications were on the grounds of design. This allowed them to make a compelling case to the DM team that a code could ease the process of determining an application – without adding an extra tier of bureaucracy. Their analysis also revealed that the vast majority of cases involved alterations, extensions and the development of small sites. This insight allowed the policy team to sharpen the focus and user-friendliness of the draft code.

“Through the use of the code, new team members began to show an increased level of confidence in making more assertive decisions on design.”

Lake District