Barnet Conservatives question the role of consultation company Your Shout in obtaining letters of support for the controversial Broadwalk Centre development reports David Floyd

Editor’s note: this article was updated at 17:15 on July 31st after contact from Ballymore’s legal representatives.

Opposition councillors say a developer has risked “undermining the consultation process” after it emerged that the vast majority of consultation responses in support of a controversial development were obtained by a company that claims it can help developers “overcome objector noise”. 

Your Shout was hired by developers Ballymore and Transport for London to engage with local residents in Edgware to get their views on The Broadwalk Centre development which secured outlined planning permission at a meeting of Barnet Council’s strategic planning committee last week. 

Both before and after the meeting, local residents objecting to the scheme had expressed concerns about the role of paid consultants in securing statements of support for the project, submitted via the council’s planning portal. 

While comments made directly via the portal show a split of 2384 against compared to just 592 in favour, there was a far more event split in the number of letters uploaded to the site, many of which have been uploaded by Your Shout on behalf of supporters of the scheme.

Now Barnet Post can reveal that the consultation company has been trumpeting its success in amplifying positive perspectives on the development. 

“Want 2298 letters of support, like we helped obtain for one project this week?”

Writing in its email newsletter published on Friday (25th July), the company reports on the result of Wednesday’s committee vote on the Edgware scheme before going on to highlight its role in the process. 

In its description of the result of last week’s vote Your Shout tells its readers: “In Barnet, councillors voted 6-3 to give outline permission to redevelop Broadwalk Shopping Centre and surrounding buildings in Edgware as 3,365 homes (35% affordable) and 463 student or co-living homes in buildings up to 29 storeys.”

It adds: “They asked about impact on the local high street, consultation, need for housing, affordable homes, light impact, and parking. 2665 supporters wrote letters of support in favour of the application.”

Apparently highlighting the role it played in securing support for the project it adds underneath: “Want 2298 letters of support, like we helped obtain for one project this week? Help overcome objector noise by building narratives of support.” 

2,298 letters amounts to over 86% of the total number of supporters.

Describing its work on its website, Your Shout says that it “undertakes professional community consultation for the built environment”. 

It adds: “We work for developers, local authorities and other clients who wish to contact, consult and listen to people in a specific community, neighbourhood or area. 

“We are committed to strengthening relationships between land owners, communities and local councillors. 

The letters below are examples of the email letters submitted by Your Shout via the portal in support of the development. 

There is no suggestion either that the responses are not genuine or that seeking to obtain supportive responses is against planning rules.

“Officers had no direct involvement”

In response to questions to the scheme’s developers, Tfl and Ballymore, about the role of Your Shout in the consultation process, a project spokesperson told Barnet Post: “We understand that with such a transformational scheme of this size and ambition, there will always be diverse views. 

“After almost five years of engagement with the local community, [Barnet Council’s] decision to grant consent to our outline planning application is a welcome recognition of the support that exists for the proposals.” 

Barnet Post understands that the role of Your Shout was agreed in advance with the council’s planning officers to increase the reach of engagement with residents. 

Responding to questions about the role of paid consultants in the consultation process and committee members understanding of that role, a council spokesperson said: “The planning committee reports set out details of all respondents supporting or opposing a planning application for members of the strategic planning committee to consider. 

“All committee members undertake training to identify and consider relevant material planning considerations and understand how to take into account those comments in planning decisions. The volume of responses either in support or against a planning application is not in itself a material consideration.”

In response to specific claims about officers’ awareness of Your Shout role, a council spokesperson said: “Barnet’s planning officers were aware the applicant had engaged Your Shout as part of their consultation team.” 

They added: “However, officers had no direct involvement in agreeing Your Shout’s role in the application process. Your Shout worked purely under the direction of its client, Ballymore (Edgware) Ltd.”

“There is a strong chance that these comments came from people who do not understand the development”

Reports of the role of Your Shout have provoked a strong reaction from Barnet’s Conservative opposition. 

In a joint statement issued on behalf of five councillors*, a spokesperson raised a series of questions about the developers’ use of the company. They told Barnet Post: “For Edgware, this was the most important planning application in a century. Our Conservative committee members told us that they went to the meeting ready to listen in good faith to all residents’ submissions. 

“They were fully aware of the work of Save Our Edgware campaign but were not aware of any consultancy involvement in soliciting positive responses. They still voted to refuse permission because they had deep concerns about the application.”

Contrasting the role of a paid consultation company with local volunteer campaigners they said: “Save Our Edgware, who spoke persuasively at the meeting, arranged thousands of comments from residents in Edgware who opposed the development. They are a voluntary resident group. Committee members were also told during the meeting that a ‘silent majority’ of residents supported the plans and that thousands had sent comments in support.”

They added: “We are told that Ballymore paid a consultancy to fish for supportive comments and that consultancy is now using its ‘success’ in Edgware as a marketing tool. There is a strong chance that these comments came from people who do not fully understand the development and its implications for Edgware.”

They said the use of consultants “risks undermining the consultation process. It also widens the already large power divide between residents and applicants”.

They added: “Labour gifted Ballymore £40m of CIL money to prop up the project before planning permission was even given. They also permitted this consultancy transaction to happen without any comment or explanation at the meeting.

“The Strategic Planning Committee and the residents of Edgware deserve to know what really happened. The council must hold Ballymore to account or they will be held to account themselves.”

Asked for Barnet Labour’s view on the role of paid consultation organisations and Labour committee members’ understanding of their role, a Barnet Labour spokesperson told Barnet Post: “The role of councillors on planning committees is to make decisions based on relevant material planning considerations.  While the content of responses to a planning application may be a material consideration, the quantity of those responses is not.”

In response to the online publication of this article, Ballymore asked us, via its legal representatives, to include the following statement: “Our client retained Your Shout to assist with local engagement around the proposed Development.”

“The engagement of consultants such as Your Shout in respect of proposed development projects, in order to promote local understanding and to counter any mis-information, is common practice;”

“Your Shout collected both positive and negative responses in relation to the Development, which were passed on to the Council as part of the consultation process and ahead of the planning decision.”

“The Council, as recorded in the Committee report dated 23 July 2025, was fully aware that the services of such a consultancy had been retained and satisfied that the processes were ‘sufficiently robust’. This information was available to all councillors, the press and the public over a week before the relevant committee meeting took place.”

“Our client did not pay, nor authorise Your Shout to pay, any individual to provide any letter/representation in report of the scheme.”

Barnet Post has at no point disputed any of these points and is grateful to Ballymore for providing clarification on its position. 

*The comment was made on behalf of five councillors: Conservative group leader Peter Zinkin along with Lucy Wakeley (Edgware), Nick Mearing-Smith (Edgware), Shuey Gordon (Edgware) and Lachhya Gurung (Edgwarebury).

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