Consulting on contentious transport policy with 1,437 responses
The challenge
Hackney Council's Streetscene team needed to develop a new Transport Strategy for 2026 to 2036, shaping how residents move around and use their streets for the next decade. The strategy needed to address complex, interconnected challenges including air pollution, road safety, accessibility, affordability and climate change, whilst balancing environmental ambitions with the diverse daily needs of all Hackney residents.
Transport is a contentious issue in Hackney. The council needed a consultation platform that could handle detailed feedback on 12 separate transport issues, manage focus groups with elderly, disabled and young people, and analyse thousands of comments to identify meaningful themes across a divided community where opinions on measures like Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) are strongly held on both sides.
The approach
Hackney ran a 12-week consultation from March to June 2025 using Citizen Space as their central platform. The consultation asked residents to rank the importance of 12 key transport issues grouped into three themes: transport basics (connecting places), safer, greener and healthier transport, and fair transport.
The council promoted the consultation through multiple channels including social media, the Love Hackney magazine, council newsletters and direct emails to organisations representing protected groups, campaign groups and community organisations. They held an in-person drop-in event at Homerton Library, ran focus groups with elderly, disabled and young residents, and conducted stakeholder meetings with groups ranging from the London Cycling Campaign to logistics organisations.
The council used AI to analyse comments and identify themes, with manual sense-checking to ensure accuracy. Comment counts tracked how many respondents raised each theme, allowing the team to understand not just overall sentiment but the intensity and range of opinion on each issue.
The results
The consultation received 1,437 responses, with 95.5% from Hackney residents. The 12 issues received between 74% and 91.5% support, with "connecting places" (91.5%), "access to all" (88.7%) and "safe and secure" (86.8%) ranking as most important. The consultation generated over 5,500 comments analysed across all 12 issues.
The analysis identified six overarching themes that emerged consistently across the consultation:
The impact of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods was the most prominent topic, with 34.1% of respondents (490 people) mentioning LTNs in their comments. A separate analysis revealed divided opinion, with 57.2% expressing negative sentiment and 42.8% positive views. Negative sentiment was more common among older residents and those with disabilities, with concerns focused on traffic displacement and pollution, whilst positive comments highlighted improved safety and local liveability.
Greater inclusivity and accessibility for all emerged as a clear priority, with frequent calls for improved accessibility for disabled, elderly and less mobile residents who felt overlooked by current policies.
Quality, reliability and affordability of public transport was a fundamental concern, with respondents raising issues about overcrowding, delays, cancellations and inadequate routes, seeing improvements as essential prerequisites for any shift away from private car use.
Safety beyond traffic encompassed concerns about crime and antisocial behaviour in public spaces, with respondents expressing concerns about muggings, phone snatching and drug use.
Quality of road and pavement infrastructure was highlighted across multiple issues, with concerns about potholes, uneven surfaces and general lack of cleanliness affecting safety and accessibility.
Nuances in active travel and greener spaces showed that whilst environmental goals received general support, their practical implementation and perceived local impacts generated significant discussion, including concerns about cyclist behaviour and questions about the necessity of further street-level greening.
The council used the findings to modify the Transport Strategy's themes and chapter headings. Changes included adding reference to maintaining road space for essential trips, sharpening the air quality theme to focus on main roads where residents expressed concerns, and widening the "access to all" theme to include pavement obstructions, restrictions in motor vehicle access and bus service issues.
The council also decided to fund a period of deliberative engagement, bringing together a specially recruited representative panel of local residents to work on Hackney's emerging Main Roads Strategy, designed and managed independently by experts including leading academics from the London School of Economics.
A consultation on the full draft Transport Strategy will take place in early 2026 before formal adoption.
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The level of support we get with Citizen Space is amazing. Knowing that I can always speak to someone on the phone quickly if anything comes up is great and really puts us at ease.
Delib is a govtech leader specialising in consultation and engagement, trusted by over 600 government organisations worldwide, including major planning projects. Since 2004, we've been building secure, accessible digital platforms to make participation simpler, fairer, and more inclusive. Our flagship product, Citizen Space, was built in collaboration with the UK government and has supported more than 11 million responses across over 110,000 democratic activities.