Objection 8. (Not specific to GNLP5014)
The GNLP website has proved confusing to use and navigate.

As well as being difficult to navigate and being poorly structured, the use of terminology in relation to the Gypsy and Traveller Site proposals has been poorly chosen, though this is a more general criticism of effective communication than the website specifically.

8.1 The Phase 1 and 2 Site reports for sites under consideration were termed Site Assessments and Sustainability Appraisals.

Both lead to the acronym SA which occurs in various paragraphs and it is sometimes not made clear which document is being referred to. A third term used on the website with the potential acronym SA is Site Allocations.

8.2 One of the main sections on the GNLP website of importance comes under the heading Site Policies – a confusing heading when used for marking primary content.

If you open the link you will indeed be able to access all of the numbered Policy Stages (1-29) for the Gypsy and Traveller Site analysis.

However the term is not on all pages, and sometimes has an active link or not. Indeed, on the main page, a reference to Site Policies does not contain a hyperlink to the actual detail (attached)

The term is also easily overlooked in terms of being a reference to “Website Policies” (which is a common feature of websites for the detailing of privacy or data protection policies). It is a link that many website users would simply not follow to locate primary information.

From a lay persons point of few (as opposed to perhaps a planning professional), the use of the term Site Policies and exactly what it means in relation to this study is generally unclear. The term is simply far too ambiguous.
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8.3 The website is also noted to offer no Search function, Help System, or central Glossary of Terminology.

After several weeks of using the system I found some help notes on an obscure page, but they are far from obviously placed. Can you find them?

Even as an IT professional I find the website confusing, and I have received many comments from people who have failed to understand its structure for the purposes of this consultation.