Increasingly for major development schemes the planning department are discussing with developers ways to promote their schemes and provide information about the development through the use of hoardings and display boards around the development site. This is and will become an increasingly important part of the consultation process with local communities to provide information about future developments in thier localities. At the same time hoardings also provide a visual screen to demolition work and site preparation works whilst development is ongoing. In additon, pre-application discussions with developers on major schemes are also leading to a clearer understanding about the benefits of early engagement with local people and communities about development proposals. This has a number of positive aspects in alerting people to future development in their area, teasing out local problems that need to be addressed in a planning application and building an early dialogue leading to a degree of consensus and confidence between the developer and local people.