Unprecedented public engagement in N/M20 Cork to Limerick virtual town hall
Public consultation and community/stakeholder engagement has been transformed through the use of digital placemaking tools and virtual town hall events over the past 15 months as a result of pandemic and restrictions on in-person events.
According to the Limerick Post newspaper, that has been ‘Unprecedented Public Engagement on N/M20 Cork to Limerick virtual consultation’. You can read more about here:
The public consultation process for this critical Cork/Limerick project and the proposed routes resulted in an astonishing 40,000 interactions, both online and through the N/M20 Project Office. While the use of a virtual town hall was first developed back in 2018, using immersive technologies including virtual reality and augmented reality, its use for the statutory public consultation process for planning in Ireland is a relatively new phenomenon, aided by the outbreak of Covid-19.
While the project’s virtual consultation room was supported by online and telephone consultation meetings, and feedback channels via email, the project website and post, there was some criticism of ‘digital lockout’ for members of the community without access to smartphones or reasonable broadband services.
In an interview with the Limerick Post, Project Coordinator Jari Howard said “By any criterion, this was a very significant and successful public consultation. Notwithstanding the use of a format that would have been new to many people, there was a tremendous level of constructive engagement… The online format of the consultation has led to much higher levels of public engagement than normally experienced and these new methods will become an integral part of all future consultations for this project, along with the traditional public display events and physical meetings once the public health guidance permits same”.
The Public Consultation Institute of Ireland (PCII) is committed to engaging citizens and empowering communities through the use of emerging technologies, which are transforming how the Government and citizens communicate and interact. PCII’s mission is to bring more people into the public participatory process. Not only will this expand informed public engagement, early studies suggest that it is likely to enhance the diversity and quality of partipartipation. View a list of public consultations currently open at www.publicconsultation.ie
