Case studies

Cambridgeshire County Council: Tackling Congestion in Cambridgeshire

The Brief

Cambridge County Council was looking for ways to reduce congestion in the city of Cambridge. A significant potential source of funding for measures aiming at managing congestion was Central Government's Transport Innovation Fund (TIF). However, in order to qualify for the funding the implementation of some form of congestion charging was necessary.

In view of this, the Council wanted to find out whether congestion charging was acceptable to the city's residents and businesses. As part of an extensive consultation process they asked Dialogue by Design to run a series of stakeholder workshops in and around the Cambridge area to get a better idea of the views held and the arguments underpinning them.

The Process

This project is a good example for the spectrum of event-related services Dialogue by Design offers. We:

• Provided advice on the process design of a series of workshops for business, community and environmental stakeholders in Cambridgeshire
• Compiled numerous lists of stakeholders held by the council into a single stakeholder database
• Managed the mailing of invitations and logging of RSVP's
• Helped organise the logistics
• Facilitated the events
• Compiled the workshop reports

Nine workshops were run both in the city of Cambridge and in some of the outlying communities. Most were for mixed groups of stakeholders but one was held specifically for representatives of schools and another specifically for Parish Councillors. While the process design placed the focus on congestion charging, it also left enough room for participants to debate other aspects of congestion, and to examine each others' proposals (including both incentives and deterrents) for tackling the issue. This encouraged lively and open discussion between participants.

The Outcome

These workshops demonstrated how useful it is to bring together people with very different viewpoints. Every workshop included passionate supporters and opponents of congestion charging, and all had ample opportunity to make their respective cases and debate the advantages and disadvantages as they saw them.

This gave the officials responsible for transport policy at the Council a useful insight into the aspects of congestion charging that would need to be addressed, if introduced. The workshops also generated ideas on how to develop credible alternatives to the car which took advantage of the local knowledge of participants as transport users.

The workshops provided a good opportunity for participants to understand why the County Council was considering congestion charging, and also to appreciate the difficulty of reconciling the interests of different stakeholders. Many participants commented that they had learnt a great deal and had left with an altered point of view having had their preconceptions challenged.. This was a direct result of a process design that encouraged thorough exploration of the issues.

While other strands of the consultation such as questionnaires had generated some useful insights, face-to-face discussion added another dimension. The way facilitation made it possible to hold meetings that were both passionate and constructive was greatly appreciated.

After engaging with residents Cambridgeshire County Council decided to bid for the TIF funding. Unfortunately whilst their bid was being reviewed the Government announced that the TIF scheme would be scrapped and replaced with a similar fund that will not require congestion charging. Despite this, the Council will still be able to draw and build upon findings from the process.

Quotes

"Very well structured to facilitate exchange of views" - Participant feedback

"Wide ranging discussion of issues, all points put across clearly. Everyone given a chance to speak" - Participant feedback

"I came away with a much greater understanding of the scheme and some of the complex issues involved in formulating policy" - Participant feedback