I’ve got a plan! Where do I start, and how do I get others involved?
For virtually all projects, large and small, it is a good idea to involve local residents in your plans at an early stage. Or perhaps there are businesses, a school or other organisations in the neighbourhood that will also be affected by your plans. The same applies to them: involve them at an early stage.
Your plan may have an impact on others. This impact could be minor or more significant. It is therefore important that you involve the local community in your plan. This will enable you to find out what the local community thinks of your plan. At the same time, it gives you the opportunity to make any necessary adjustments to your plan. Local residents often know very well what challenges or opportunities a plan presents, and can offer valuable suggestions for improvement. Furthermore, when the local community is involved, people often have a better understanding of the choices made in a plan.
This often improves plans, and it also reduces the likelihood of complaints or objections later on. That’s good for everyone: your neighbours feel that their views have been heard, and you can get on with your plans.
Obligation to participate (Environment Act, Article 16.55(7))
- Consultation is mandatory if your plan or activity does not comply with the environmental plan. In that case, you must submit a draft application to amend the environmental plan.
- Public participation is also mandatory if you submit a draft application for an environmental permit for an activity that does not fit within the environmental plan (BOPA) and where the municipal council issues a binding recommendation.
This often concerns major (complex) developments. The rules governing mandatory participation are set out in the memorandum on participation and participation rules under the Environment Act. For example, the regulations stipulate that local residents in urban areas and village centres must be consulted within a radius of 150 metres. In rural areas, the radius is 500 metres.
Once your draft application has been assessed as promising, you can begin the participation process. As the initiator, you must draw up a participation plan, inform stakeholders and local residents, and produce a participation report. The participation plan and the participation report will be taken into account in the council’s assessment of your final plan and in its decision to offer a preliminary agreement.
Who is responsible for participation?
If you are the person responsible for the plan, you are responsible for organising public engagement in relation to your plan (Environment Act, Article 16.55). There are no formal requirements regarding the form this engagement must take. The local authority has only a supporting and advisory role in this regard.
Step-by-step guide
Is participation mandatory in your situation? If so, you are also required to draw up a participation plan and prepare a participation report. We’d be happy to help you get started. If you follow the steps below, you can be sure that you have covered everything when drawing up the participation plan and the participation report. This will minimise the risk of delays.
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Step 1: Draw up a participation plan
24 June 2026It is important that you think carefully in advance about what you want to discuss with those around you and what you hope to achieve through these discussions. This will enable you to draw up an action plan more quickly. To help you, you will find resources below for drawing up a participation plan.
Resources for the participation plan
If you have any questions or concerns about your participation plan, you can discuss it with the local authority before implementing it. To do so, please contact the official handling your draft application or the Apeldoorn Environmental Services Centre.
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Step 2: You implement the participation plan
24 June 2026Once the participation plan has been approved by the local authority, the initiator implements it. The following three activities take place on an ongoing basis throughout the participation process:
- Enquire: At the outset, the project initiator must inform the local community about the project, the opportunities for them to contribute ideas and the framework for participation. The local community will be kept informed throughout the process, and feedback will be provided upon completion.
- Retrieved from: the core of the participation process is gathering responses to participation questions; various methods and discussion formats can be used for this purpose.
- Feedback: Following the participation activities and upon completion of the participation process, the organiser must provide feedback on the outcomes of the activities and how these outcomes have been incorporated into the plans.
Tips
- Make sure you keep in touch with the people around you whom you have involved in your plan, even if nothing happens for a long time.
- Inform all stakeholders about your plan. For example, in a letter or by inviting them to a meeting or discussion. Be transparent about the plans and the consultation process to be followed. If appropriate, ask how they would like to be involved.
- Make sure that everyone is given the opportunity to share their wishes, ideas, interests or concerns, both with you as the organiser and with the other parties involved.
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Step 3: You draw up a participation report
24 June 2026The consultation process must be concluded with a consultation report. The report is assessed by the municipal council. In accordance with the by-law, this consultation report must cover the following topics:
- Brief description of the initiative.
- Reflection on the participation objective: to what extent has the project’s specific participation objective been achieved?
- Describe who was involved and to what extent.
- Describe the activities that have been carried out and the results they have produced.
- Describe how the revenues have been incorporated into the plans
- Describe the means of communication that were used to inform the local community about the initiative and the participation process, and to keep them updated.
Explain your answers and choices clearly. This will increase the likelihood of your report being marked as satisfactory.
Resources for the participation report
Tips
- Provide feedback on what you have done with the input. Adjust your plan where possible.
- Once your plan has been revised, share it again with the relevant parties (if they would appreciate it). With some complex initiatives, you may need to do this several times.
- Following these steps can help ensure that you are ultimately able to get started more quickly. As you will have been able to amend your plan to address any objections from the local community before submitting your planning application, we can sometimes grant the planning permission more quickly as a result.
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Step 4: Assessment of the participation process by the local authority
24 June 2026The local authority will assess whether you have carried out the consultation process carefully. This does not mean that everyone has to agree with your plan. Local residents may lodge an objection, even if you have involved them in your plans. Your participation plan and the participation report will be taken into account in the balancing of interests carried out by the local authority before we make a final decision on your plan.
Find out what the council looks for when reading the participation report (PDF, 98.7 kB)
Providing information on implementation
Once the planning permission has been finalised, you can really get started. At this stage, it is once again up to you to inform those in your local area about your work where necessary, if they might be affected by it. This no longer falls under the heading of ‘participation’, but is more a matter of being a good neighbour and keeping your neighbours informed where necessary.
In the case of larger projects undertaken by developers, the contractor usually takes charge of this communication. This is, of course, particularly important when road closures, paving work and other activities that may cause disruption to the neighbourhood are involved. We refer to this as the ‘community communication’ involved in the implementation of a project.