Meeting Place Communications opens in Chelmsford

Meeting Place Communications has added to its offices in Bath and Reading by launching an office in Chelmsford to spearhead its business activities in Essex and East Anglia.

The move follows the company’s success in the South, where it has operated out of offices in Bath and Reading since 2006.

The business works with most of the UK’s major developers, helping them to engage local communities and win support for development.

Anna Sabine, who as company director is leading on the expansion, said:

“The growing demand from local communities to have their say on development proposals means we are expanding. We have already undertaken important project work in the South East, and feel that now is the right time to establish a permanent presence in the area. A new office in Chelmsford will allow MPC to work in an exciting region, where communities and developers are working hand-in-hand to deliver vital economic growth. We are delighted to announce this launch” 

The Chelmsford branch of Meeting Place Communications opens this week. For further information please contact Anna Sabine on 01245 218 160, 07779 100085 or email info@meetingplacecommunications.com

Account Executive wanted for our Reading office

Meeting Place Communications is seeking to recruit a motivated and ambitious Account Executive for its Reading office.

Our Account Executives provide a range of research and support activities for our project team, getting actively involved across the board. This is an excellent opportunity for a new graduate with an interest in PR, politics or public affairs. Graduate candidates with relevant experience are also welcome to apply.

If this role appeals to you, please express interest by emailing a CV and covering letter to nickchancellor@meetingplacecommuncations.com

Ambitious Director wanted for our Bath office

Meeting Place Communications is seeking an ambitious new Director for its Bath office.  We work with developers of all shapes and sizes, helping them to achieve planning consents through our work with politicians and communities.  

MPC has been steadily growing for the past five years, and with 14 staff over two offices (and plans for further expansion), we are looking for someone currently working at Account Director level elsewhere who is looking for a challenge.  

You will be leading a team of account managers and directors based in Bath and working across southern England and Wales, as well as being part of the senior team driving the expansion of the company.  

If this role appeals to you, please express interest by emailing a CV to info@meetingplacecommuncations.com

Planning consent secured at Pen Bryn Oer

Meeting Place Communications campaigning expertise once again excelled in securing a planning consent for a temporary 50m anemometry mast to be built on land at Pen Bryn Oer, Rhymney. 

After a successful letter writing campaign, Caerphilly County Borough’s Council Planning Committee voted in favour of REG Windpower’s proposal on Thursday 7^th June 2012. 

The met mast will monitor and collect wind speed for a maximum of two years on the site to determine if a small wind farm development will be feasible. 

Twice as many letters had been received by the council in support of the met mast application than against.

Key planning official appointed by London Mayor

"London Borough of Redbridge planning chief Stewart Murray is to become assistant director of planning for London mayor Boris Johnson. 


Murray has been chief planning and regeneration officer at Redbridge since last year and previously worked at the London Borough of Barnet and the City of London Corporation. 


At Redbridge he has overseen the introduction of the council's Community Infrastructure Levy. 


The borough was one of the first three English local authorities to begin charging the development tariff.



Murray, who will take up the role at the Greater London Authority (GLA) this autumn, replaces Giles Dolphin who retired earlier this year.



He will lead both the London Plan team and the Planning Decisions Unit.



The Mayor of London’s office said: 


'This team will play a key role in helping to ensure that the mayor's priorities of ensuring strong and sustained economic growth, the enhancement and maintenance of our existing economy and securing 200,000 jobs over the next four years.'



He has also worked within the planning team at the GLA in the past and was a team leader in the GLA's former strategic development team."


Source:http://www.planningresource.co.uk/news/1133145/london-mayor-appoints-key-planning-official/

The Good Campaign Guide:

Winning planning consents in an era of localism bears more than a passing resemblance to a political campaign…

Ten years ago PR consultants were lucky to be invited to a project team meeting, and if they did they might appear at the bottom of the agenda, somewhere below Drainage and Foul Water issues. These days most team meetings, and the focus of most clients, are dominated by the politics of a site and the views of local residents and their representatives, rather than planners or planning policy. PR and engagement has quite literally been creeping up the agenda.

Again, ten years ago one of the great challenges for firms like MPC was to persuade clients to avoid public meetings, a forum where they could only come off badly. These days we try to encourage clients to engage communities far beyond holding public exhibitions. 

As those able to come to a public exhibition are self-selecting and rarely representative of the community at large, the challenge for everyone involved in development is how to find and engage local people who will support development.  This could include: First time buyers, those seeking to move out of accommodation, local businesses as well as stakeholders who could gain via community benefits associated with development.

We see increasingly effective opposition campaigns focusing on negative and emotional issues – supermarkets ‘tearing the heart’ out of local communities, new housing ‘destroying our green spaces’. In response we have to campaign more effectively, being positive, but highlighting the emotional reasons why we want development – ‘homes’ not ‘units’, ‘parks for local people’ not ‘green buffer zones’. We should go further by engaging those who want to see development through proper campaigns designed to show politicians, the media and the wider community their strength of feeling. 

In May, Meeting Place Communications is launching its own Good Campaign Guide. 

This is designed to show a range of ways in which effective campaign techniques can be applied to the planning process. Using the experiences of a range of political and single issue campaigners, we have brought together a series of approaches that provide those of us in favour of change the tools to support our projects.

In the era of localism, hands in the air, shows of community strength, the number of phone calls to a local councillor or the number of letters on a council website will count as much as any planning policy that applies to your site.

Whatever our professional backgrounds, we all need to be campaigners now. 

For more information about the upcoming launch events or for an invitation please call Ruth on 01225 422243

Local Election Preview

England: A new system of governance on offer for English cities as labour seek to bounce back

A patchwork of English local authorities face elections this year, notably in the urban conurbations of the North East, North West and Yorkshire where Labour will be targeting nothing short of outright dominance. It also looks likely that Birmingham will swing back to Labour having been run by a Conservative / Liberal Democrat coalition.

The Lib Dems national unpopularity may also lead the Conservatives to gain overall control in Cheltenham, Colchester, Mole Valley and Winchester. However, typically the Lib Dem support will be very strong in certain wards which may make this aim more difficult than polls predict. For the Lib Dems the election will be about seeking to retain what they already hold. There may be some small scale success for the Green Party as their relative strong spots of Norwich and Stroud have elections.

Ten cities in England will also be holding a referendum on whether to have a directly elected Mayor, with the exception of Liverpool which will actually be electing their Mayor having opted to “jump the queue” and passing the Mayoral decision through full council. Polling suggests most referendums will lead to wins for the Yes camp. Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester and Newcastle in particular look to be set to choose a Mayoral system. The Mayor will be voted for by the whole electorate and have executive powers to make policy. There will still be councillors as well, but the seat of power will shift to the directly elected Mayor. The Government hopes that this will lead to stronger city leadership and a better connection with the electorate. If cities opt for a Mayor, they will elect them on 15^th November 2012.

Wales: In 2011 labour limped to something of a comeback but can they re-assert dominance in Wales this time?

Labour had a poor local election results in 2008 and will expect to make take back serious ground  on this occasion. Much of their success will depend on whether those Labour-inclined voters who stayed at home in 2008 vote in 2012. They have ambitions to re-gain Newport and re-establish majority control in a number of the South Wales Valley local authorities. North East Wales will also offer the opportunity for further Labour gains.

The Lib Dems will be battling hard to retain their impressive victories which saw them leading the councils in three of Wales’ four largest urban areas.  They will also hope to retain councillors in Ceredigion and Powys. 

Plaid Cymru face their first election with Leanne Wood as leader and will hope this boosts their profile in the valleys battlegrounds with Labour, notably Caerphilly where the council is on a knife-edge between the two parties.

The Conservatives currently have outright majorities in Monmouthshire and Vale of Glamorgan, both of which they should hold. If they also cling to control in Newport as lead party in a coalition, then it becomes a very good night for the Tories. A good night becomes exceptional if they take control in Conwy but that remains an outside chance.

Scotland: Can anyone stop the SNP tide?

Scotland uses proportional representation for its local elections and the net effect is that only four authorities out of 32 have overall control, two with Labour in charge and two with Independent groups. Despite starting from a high point the SNP still hopes to make gains against all the other parties and Labour will be just as concerned to constrain this growth as they will of making gains themselves. The Conservatives and Lib Dems will be battling to try and remain relevant north of the border.