It is important not to begin the consultation process with meeting customers face to face.  The consultation process needs to be planned; it may be the case that your Council already has a consultation strategy to which you can refer.

You should take a staged approach:-

There are many sources of national and local information available so it is unlikely you will have to generate all the data yourself. In addition, there are guides which can help you decide how to consult with your local community. Click on the following links to find out more:-

   Route map to data collation
   Existing data from local consultation
   Existing data from national consultation
   Consultation toolkits