Another year which seems to have disappeared within the blink of an eye. I trust your teams are well and looking forward to winding down for the festive season.
Firstly, I’d like to thank you all for your continued support of Developing Consensus. Although we are yet to have an in-person meeting, your insights, feedback and continued passion in driving the North East forward through our Zoom meetings and steering group discussions is always welcomed and very much appreciated.
In the New Year, we hope to bring back the popular workshop session that we conducted a few years ago in order to establish new priorities going forward, update on the progress of existing groups and gain further insights from our members and associates.
A particular highlight throughout the year, which will also be discussed at our workshop, will be the continued progress of our planning group. A number of months ago the group conducted a survey across the development sector collecting feedback on working with each of the local authorities within the region. The results of this survey are now being collated and confidentiality shared with key figures from each LPA in the hopes of encouraging greater collaborative working and tackling issues within the planning process.
This is the collaboration and dialogue we want to foster more within Developing Consensus and we hope the workshop will be a real catalyst in identifying barriers to growth and potential steps forward within 2022.
Finally, as we move into the New Year and what will hopefully be a year of successes for our region, from myself and all of the team here at Developing Consensus, we’d like to wish you a very merry Christmas.
Adam Serfontein
Chairman of Developing Consensus