Chelgate Local Internship

Martha Broderick is studying politics at Cornell University in New York State. She joined Chelgate Local for an internship to understand planning and local government in the UK

Although I’ve studied politics in the UK for A-level and my degree is in the USA , my experience

L-R Mike Hardware, Martha Broderick, Sophie Coghlan

of it in practice was limited. My first experience of the planning process in action was when development of the Cornell hockey pitch was almost derailed because the university underestimated planning timescales and the impact of local opposition. Although the plans were passed, it certainly gave me a sense of how things can go when communication isn’t given priority in project planning.

So, when I first joined Chelgate Local for my internship in September whilst on leave from university, my experience was mainly about what can go wrong in the planning process. My first week was spent at two public exhibitions with Mark and Sophie, run for client projects, a baptism of fire interacting with residents who seemed to expect me to know the answer to any and every question! It was a great way to start understanding the preparation that goes into making the events run smoothly, and the role of questionnaires in getting people to engage to identify opinions as well as meeting the requirements of the planning process. I’ve enjoyed how connected tasks are, with data for questionnaires feeding into analysis in client reports alongside media, political and current affairs monitoring. There is a clear contrast between the US system, where planning board members are paid, and the UK where councillors are also elected but act as unpaid officials. Despite a requirement to declare interests, I was surprised at how hard it can be to find out information on employment and interests outside the council used in political audits. This was especially frustrating when the detail can be significant in how they might view a development.

I’ve been lucky that my internship coincided with party conference season and the Government’s ambitious target for house building – including Housing Minister Steve Reed’s “Build Baby Build” hats which were definitely reminiscent of the US! It has given me the best possible overlap of national and local government policy in action and a sense of how policy isn’t in itself enough to deliver results on the ground. What I’ve learned about the planning process is that it is long, requires attention to detail and a willingness to persevere in the face of opposition. In all that, having a team like Chelgate Local to help navigate that can make all the difference – the work they do is exactly what was missing from the project to develop our new hockey pitch.

Being part of the tight-knit and knowledgeable Chelgate Local team has been an amazing opportunity to be directly involved in so many aspects of what they do for clients in a way that probably wouldn’t have happened in one of the standard corporate schemes. I’m very grateful for the team’s willingness to get me involved and how much that experience has given me a much better sense of what consultancy provides. It certainly means that I go back to my degree studies with a stronger sense of how they fit into a business environment and where my career interests lie.