A local problem becomes easier to solve when the people affected can speak before decisions are final.

Consultation that arrives after a decision is really an invitation to object. The only move left is opposition, so people take it, and what could have been useful local knowledge turns into a fight about respect. Asking earlier changes the material available. The people who live with a problem know things about it that no survey captures, and they know them before the plan is drawn.

If you are shaping something that affects other people, ask while the answer can still change the outcome. Say plainly what is fixed and what is open. When you cannot use what you hear, explain why rather than letting people assume they were ignored.