Disentangling the multiple roles of neighbourhood planning consultants in the English planning system. A view from within

The extensive use of consultants in English neighbourhood planning was identified early in research discussing its implementation. This practice paper reflects on the roles that such consultants have sustained in the ‘enactment space’ shaped by that policy. This is sustained by highlighting the experience of an extensively active consultant whose reflection is used as a form of biographical interpretivist research to highlight the nuances of the consultant role amongst and between civil society, private actors and the state. The paper provides insight on consultants in the form of co-produced planning and reflects on the planning implications more widely.