HS2 was announced in 2010. The UK government totally ignored often expert and constructive criticism over the ensuing decade. The archaic "Hybrid Bill" process of consultation was a farce.
Had the UK Department for Transport heeded such criticism then the project would now likely be in very different but far better shape than today’s shambles.
So...the public are like the frogs in a swamp that you want to drain...? Interesting. Here's a thought, the frogs are the ones reading this stuff, and presumably who you are hoping will dip their webbed fingers into their soggy purses and pay you somthing for your efforts. But, while they are of enough use to you to be your readers, they don't deserve a say in anything. Leave that to clever chaps like you. Ribbit.
As an engineering colleague put it we in the UK suffer from a culture of ‘analysis paralysis’ when it comes to projects … a belief that repeatedly reviewing/consulting and then revising plans always leads to improved outcomes.
It does up to a point but thereafter the process increasingly becomes self-obsessed concerning itself with ever more immaterial issues or even worse, perceived issues. Meanwhile changes keep getting made, schedules keep getting extended, more and more money gets spent before the first spade even hits the ground, and the projected outturn costs keep escalating.
Reviews and consultations only ever really work of course if you have enough of the right reviewers/consultees ie. those with a genuine interest in improving things and sufficient understanding to make a meaningful contribution.
The Dutch have a great expression for the sort of behaviour our planning and regulatory approvals process encourages which basically translates as ‘ant f&£!ing’.
You only realise just how surreal and utterly pointless much of it is when you have to try to explain to foreign investors, project managers or engineers how to navigate our Byzantine planning and regulatory processes and how long it all takes.
HS2 was announced in 2010. The UK government totally ignored often expert and constructive criticism over the ensuing decade. The archaic "Hybrid Bill" process of consultation was a farce.
Had the UK Department for Transport heeded such criticism then the project would now likely be in very different but far better shape than today’s shambles.
So...the public are like the frogs in a swamp that you want to drain...? Interesting. Here's a thought, the frogs are the ones reading this stuff, and presumably who you are hoping will dip their webbed fingers into their soggy purses and pay you somthing for your efforts. But, while they are of enough use to you to be your readers, they don't deserve a say in anything. Leave that to clever chaps like you. Ribbit.
As an engineering colleague put it we in the UK suffer from a culture of ‘analysis paralysis’ when it comes to projects … a belief that repeatedly reviewing/consulting and then revising plans always leads to improved outcomes.
It does up to a point but thereafter the process increasingly becomes self-obsessed concerning itself with ever more immaterial issues or even worse, perceived issues. Meanwhile changes keep getting made, schedules keep getting extended, more and more money gets spent before the first spade even hits the ground, and the projected outturn costs keep escalating.
Reviews and consultations only ever really work of course if you have enough of the right reviewers/consultees ie. those with a genuine interest in improving things and sufficient understanding to make a meaningful contribution.
The Dutch have a great expression for the sort of behaviour our planning and regulatory approvals process encourages which basically translates as ‘ant f&£!ing’.
You only realise just how surreal and utterly pointless much of it is when you have to try to explain to foreign investors, project managers or engineers how to navigate our Byzantine planning and regulatory processes and how long it all takes.
I once worked with a danish team who used the phrase ‘shooting pigeons with cannonballs’ in a similar context. Brilliant!