How social media amplifies planning rows

THERE'S no denying that social media is a growing part of modern life.

The opportunities to connect people up are immense but the trouble is, algorithms and the overriding need of providers to make a profit have encouraged divisiveness, which can overshadow everything else.

It's something that affects planning as much as any other area of life: in one recent well-publicised case, a leading Conservative politician is facing a libel action for a Facebook post alleging corruption in a local planning application.

Then there was the online rumour that 15 minute cities - the concept of ensuring daily necessities such as work, shopping, education and healthcare can be found within a 15-minute walk or bike ride of any city home - will lead to a “green tyranny”, where we will be prevented from leaving a our own 15 minute zone. This recently brought 2,000 people onto the streets of Oxford to protest.

In a recent survey of planners in Wales on how social media has affected their working lives, the vast majority said social media has had a negative influence. Perhaps that should not come as a surprise.

Dealing with planning applications is a process that has to be transparent. Every application has a named person dealing with it and every application carries the likelihood of support or objection.

This is, by its nature, polarising. Involving social media can multiply the numbers on both sides. Applicants can use it to drum up community support for a proposal. For objectors it can give them the feeling that they are part of a wider campaign, rather than just responding to a consultation letter.

For the planning officer, it can turn a couple of neighbours' letters into a reading marathon, which gets in the way of their real work.

A campaign on one side can lead to a counter-campaign, with people taking the opportunity to criticise the 'other side's' comments.

Having been involved with a few controversial applications myself, I have seen how simple matters can escalate.

Because it is all so transparent, I have to spend time reassuring clients which of the wild claims are valid and which are not.

While everyone is entitled to their opinion, and this can sometimes include wild flights of fantasy, I can sympathise with the poor planning officers who have to work their way through a bulging file, partly made up of nonsense and wild aspersions.

The classic cases are those who rail against the health effects emanating from telecoms towers, submitting their comments on their mobile phones and failing to see any connection.

Even if the response doesn’t make sense, for engagement to mean anything, everybody must be entitled to air their opinionleaving people out altogether is no good for anyone.

Love it or loathe it, social media amplifies the things that bother people in modern life.

It does not have to divide everyone into one group or the other, even though people in the middle have less to shout about.

It's up to the companies that run platforms, the regulators and everyone who uses it to decide whether it is our tool or our oppressor.

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