After the initial approach has been made, the community(ies) will need to bring together the right people to take forward discussion with the renewable energy business, and also decide how to keep the wider community informed at key points in the discussions.
A meeting of all those who have a democratic mandate to represent the community(ies), such as community council and possibly local authority councillors, should be held. It is recommended that other key stakeholders are also involved, such as members of the local development trust, hall committee or other prominent community groups.
However, it is likely that discussions with the renewable energy business will need to be delegated to just a few people, who then feed back to the wider group of stakeholders. This Community Benefits Working Group or Steering Group might be a sub-group of the community council for example, or a separate grouping with representatives from each of the main local groups. Consider who should be involved from within the local community (see module Understanding the Community Context for more information on the range of potential local stakeholders, also sections 8 and 9 below).
In some cases, there may be an existing group that can take forward the discussions, where the right stakeholders are involved and section 4 (above) is taken into consideration. For example, it is common practice for the renewable energy business to form a ‘Community Liaison Group’ (CLG); an informal forum comprising representatives from the main groups in the community. The CLG is usually the forum through which the renewable energy business discusses the actual project implementation with community representatives during the preconstruction and construction phases. In some instances, this forum may also become the group through which community benefit discussions take place.
