---
title: "Vision-led planning in practice: Reflections for Local Authorities "
url: "https://www.systra.com/ireland/expert_insights/vision-led-planning-in-practice-reflections-for-local-authorities/"
type: expert_insights
date_published: 2026-07-13
date_modified: 2026-07-13
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language: en-IE
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reading_time: 6 min
canonical: "https://www.systra.com/ireland/expert_insights/vision-led-planning-in-practice-reflections-for-local-authorities/"
featured_image: "https://www.systra.com/ireland/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2026/07/vision-led-planning-banner.jpg"
---

# Vision-led planning in practice: Reflections for Local Authorities 

![Aerial photography of a road through houses in a UK town.](https://www.systra.com/ireland/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2026/07/vision-led-planning-banner.jpg)

**rren Kirkman, Associate Director for Strategy, Funding & Appraisal, considers what new guidance on the Integrated National Transport Strategy will mean for Local Authorities, giving his insights and recent experience on how vision-led planning can be effectively developed. **

Vision-led planning isn’t difficult to describe, but it is difficult to do well.
 

Over the past year I’ve facilitated a number of workshops on vision-led planning
and scenario development. With guidance on the Integrated National Transport
Strategy (INTS) expected shortly, it feels like a timely moment to reflect on
what works in practice — and where vision-led approaches can fall short if not
handled carefully. 

### 󠀁**1. Format makes a difference**󠁿

Visioning sessions often work well online. Participants understand what a
“vision” is, and digital tools can help structure contributions and widen
participation. However, scenario planning is different. Asking people to think
in terms of multiple plausible futures rather than a single forecast can feel
unfamiliar and uncomfortable, so in-person sessions where interaction can flow
freely often help build confidence and shared understanding. 

 Technology can support engagement; through polling, written comments and Q&As; 
but it should enhance dialogue, not replace it.

![Aerial photography of a road through houses in a UK town.](https://www.systra.com/uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2026/07/vision-led-planning_01-1024x576.jpg)

### 󠀁**2. Cast your net wide**󠁿

Transport is a means to an end; ease of accessibility underpins wider social and
economic outcomes, so the quality of a vision improves when the room broadens to
more than transport specialists. Bringing together colleagues from transport,
planning, public health, environment, youth services, regeneration and economic
development leads to more grounded discussions that bring benefits to life.
Including different career stages and backgrounds also matters. Some of the most
insightful comments I’ve heard have come from more junior colleagues, often 
querying assumptions others hadn’t questioned. 

Care must be taken though to ensure all voices have space to speak. Some voices 
can dominate while others hesitate. Groupthink can arise particularly when the
room is senior or time pressured. Facilitation design is critical; during
in-person sessions, small breakout groups or exercises can change the dynamic of
the room. Online, the use of the chat function can help less confident
participants. Anonymous inputs can encourage dissent and spark new
conversations. 

### 󠀁**3. Involve your political leadership**󠁿

Vision-led planning cannot sit solely with officers. Elected members are 
ultimately responsible for delivery, and if they aren’t involved in shaping the
vision, two risks emerge: it lacks political ownership, and it unravels when
difficult trade-offs arise. Engaging political leadership early helps ensure
that even the most aspirational vision has buy-in. Bold ambitions require
political commitment, and that ownership can’t be added at the end. 

Too often, we ask officers to be bold while keeping political leaders at arm’s
length. That rarely ends in success.

### 󠀁**4\. Make trade-offs explicit**󠁿

Values – such as equity, safety, growth and climate resilience – can sound
universally aligned. In practice, they can conflict. 
• Equity may impact on growth. • Safety measures can reduce capacity. • Climate
ambitions rarely make schemes cheaper. 

These tensions need open discussion during the vision-setting process —
particularly with those responsible for delivery. If trade-offs aren’t 
acknowledged early and addressed, choices will be made later, at the
implementation stage, which can mean they are not always the best decisions. A
vision ultimately says what a place values most – if those values aren’t 
interrogated explicitly at the planning stage, they will be revealed implicitly 
later.

![Row of new houses with road, pavement and car parking spaces](https://www.systra.com/uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2026/07/vision-led-planning_02-1024x576.jpg)

### 󠀁**5\. Avoid ‘good’ and ‘bad’ futures**󠁿

Scenario planning helps authorities explore uncertainty by identifying critical
drivers and constructing plausible future contexts. But a common trap is to see
scenarios as all or nothing; either positive or negative, when the truth is more
nuanced. 

Every scenario contains winners and losers. A high-growth future may create
prosperity for some while widening inequality for others. A digitally enabled
future may improve access for many yet exclude those without confidence or
connectivity. A climate-driven future may accelerate decarbonisation but create
affordability pressures in the short term. 

If we label one scenario as ‘positive’ and another as ‘negative’, we stop
interrogating them properly. The discipline is to ask, in every future: 
• Who benefits? • Who struggles? • What improves? • What becomes harder? 

Only by exploring the full range of consequences — positive and negative — can
scenarios genuinely inform strategy. Otherwise, they risk reinforcing
preferences rather than stress-testing them. 

It is sometimes the facilitator’s role to challenge assumptions and make the
room slightly uncomfortable. Constructive tension strengthens the exercise.
Without it, scenarios risk becoming interesting narratives rather than decision
tools. 

### 󠀁**6\. Delivery depends on data**󠁿

Vision-led planning doesn’t end with a workshop or even with a strategy. 
Successful delivery requires clear, measurable targets, reliable and regular
data, and the flexibility for course correction. Strategies must be amendable;
if real-world performance is going in the opposite direction to your target,
then implementation needs to change. That’s only possible with high-quality
information and a willingness to adjust. 

### 󠀁**Final reflection**󠁿

Vision-led planning and scenario development aren’t simply techniques. They 
require: 
• Broad, carefully designed participation • Political leadership and ownership •
Honest engagement with trade-offs • Robust monitoring and adaptive governance

Done well; they help local authorities shape the future rather than simply
respond to forecasts. Done poorly, they risk becoming aspirational language
layered onto business as usual. The challenge isn’t whether to adopt vision-led
approaches — but whether we are prepared to embed them with enough confidence
and rigour to make them meaningful. 

[Contact Darren](https://www.systra.com/ireland/contact/) to find out about 
incorporating  vision-led planning and scenario development in your strategies,
or read more about our 
[strategy, funding and appraisal expertise](https://www.systra.com/ireland/strategy-planning/)
. 

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