Weightings
Why weight the checklist?
An extensive sifting process with regional partners and the Steering Group has produced a list of questions addressing issues key to sustainable communities in the North West. However the project team thought it would be helpful to give an indication of the relative significance of each question. Any issues thought not to be of sufficient significance have been weeded out.
As an example, in the “transport and movement” section, it was thought that producing a neighbourhood where facilities are within walking distance was more significant to a sustainable community than providing space which can be used for car parking at peak times, but is used for play and other purposes at other times – although both are relevant to a sustainable community.
But surely weighting removes the integrated approach to sustainability?
No. We have only weighted questions within sections – so each issue in Ecology is only weighted relative to the other issues in Ecology, likewise within the other sections. Each section is of equal importance, and the scoring summary page shows the results for each section. This means the balance of performance across each of the sections is clearly visible.
So are the questions just ranked?
No. Each question has been given a weighting ranging from 0.5 to 1.0. Questions with a weighting of 0.5 can therefore score 50% of the maximum possible for those weighted at 1.0. Some of the issues are weighted equally where it is thought that they are of equal significance.
How was it weighted?
NWRA working with BRE invited a range of regional organisations to take part in a series of workshops. The findings of the workshops were combined. The weightings therefore are based on the collective views and expertise of the weighting workshops. There are 5 possible weightings (1, 0.9, 0.8, 0.7, 0.6) - not all are used in every section.
Can the weightings be changed?
This is up to individual local authorities – they are free to change the weightings if they wish. Alternatively they may adopt those set out in the Regional Checklist (see “Tailoring the Checklist for local authorities” elsewhere in the FAQ’s).