Making planning more accessible: Why infrastructure and energy developers must rethink engagement. 

By Kayley Herbert – Account Manager

Accessibility in planning is often discussed in technical or regulatory terms, but for communities experiencing infrastructure and energy development, accessibility is ultimately about whether people can meaningfully understand, engage with and influence decisions that affect their everyday lives.

When it comes to technology, regulation and design, large-scale energy and infrastructure planning applications are complex. Yet they are also deeply local. Communities are asked to navigate long technical documents, unfamiliar planning processes and formal consultation structures that can feel intimidating. For many people, particularly neurodivergent individuals, those with limited time or digital access, or those without experience of the planning system, this creates an uneven playing field.

As the sector faces greater scrutiny on social value, community benefit and fairness, making planning more accessible is central to good development and effective risk management.

Accessibility is not one-size-fits-all

Accessibility in planning has traditionally focused on physical access: venues that meet mobility standards or documents that comply with minimum readability requirements. While these remain essential, they represent only part of the picture.

Neurodivergent people, including individuals with autism, ADHD, dyslexia and dyspraxia, make up a significant proportion of the population. Yet planning engagement is rarely designed with different cognitive needs in mind. Dense text, unclear timelines, inconsistent terminology and high-pressure consultation events can all act as barriers to meaningful participation.

Cavendish’s Neurodiversity in Planning Engagement Toolkit challenges this approach. It argues that accessibility should be embedded from the outset, not retrofitted, and should benefit all participants.

Why accessibility matters for energy and infrastructure projects

Energy and infrastructure projects often involve long development timelines, multiple consenting regimes and a wide range of affected stakeholders. In this context, poor accessibility doesn’t just limit participation, it can also increase project risk.

When engagement is difficult to access, common outcomes include:

• Misunderstandings about proposals

• Perceptions that decisions have already been made

• Reduced trust in the applicant and the planning process

• Objections driven by confusion rather than substance

• Limited and unrepresentative feedback, with an overreliance on the same voices

• Proposals shaped based on a narrow range of perspectives

For nationally significant infrastructure projects and major energy schemes, these issues can surface later as reputational challenge, political pressure or examination-stage conflict. In contrast, accessible engagement supports more informed feedback and constructive dialogue.

Principles for more accessible planning engagement

The Cavendish toolkit sets out seven principles to support accessible engagement for energy and infrastructure projects.

• Involve neurodiverse voices – engagement should be informed by lived experience, not assumptions

• Big picture first – keep the main theme or area of focus of your engagement activity at the forefront

• Show the content that matters – prioritise key issues instead of presenting all information as equally important

• Keep it clean and simple – use simple language, consistent terminology and structured presentation. Consider how the information you present will be interpreted – could it be taken literally? What impact would this outcome have?

• Provide user choices – be flexible and offer multiple ways to engage – written, visual, digital, in-person – recognising that people process information differently

• Be considerate – acknowledge time pressures, emotional impacts, and sensory challenges, and create a welcoming environment – recognise that one size does not fit all

• Continue to adapt – accessibility is not static; engagement approaches should evolve in response to feedback and changing circumstances

From pre-application through to operation, accessible engagement helps identify local issues early, supports meaningful representations, and builds long-term relationships with communities.

In this sense, accessibility is closely linked to the idea of being a “good neighbour”, an approach that recognises long-term relationships rather than transactional consultation.