Consense manages effective community engagement, specialising in online consultation.
Click below to read about how we started and how far we've come...
Given the background of our parent company, 2Cs Communications, i.e. web design and development, we looked into developing an online solution to the problems arising from community consultation, and created Open Debate: our online community consultation system designed to make the process accessible, interactive and fully auditable.
Our first online consultation was for Persimmon Homes in 2005, whilst at the same time we managed the 'traditional' consultation campaign consisting of public exhibitions and a feedback leaflet. We found that the online consultation engaged a dramatically different audience. Open Debate generated overwhelmingly positive feedback for Persimmon's plans for a 1000 unit residential development near Huntingdon, in contrast to the nature of the feedback received via the exhibitions and the leaflet. Additionally, the response rate was much higher via the online consultation proving we had opened up a more accessible route for community involvement, and recorded a much more balanced and true view of local opinion.
