In the early days of your campaign don’t be surprised if there are only a handful of you doing everything. As time goes on and you raise awareness you will find more people who are willing to help and become involved.
Write leaflets to let people know what’s going on, photocopy them, put them through letter boxes, go out canvassing and hand them out. Ask people to display them in their windows. See our example awareness leaflet.
You should note that McDonald’s often do a leaflet which they deliver to letter boxes in the affected area. This is usually a standard leaflet that they use in many communities – just with the name and dates changed. However, you must get hold of a copy and see what the leaflet says. In one community McDonald’s put the wrong date for the council planning meeting on their leaflet, which would have resulted in objectors turning up 10 days too late! The community concerned gave them bad publicity in the press about it (very successfully), although McDonald’s refused to correct the mistake and campaigners had to pay out of their own pockets to leaflet houses with the correct date for the planning meeting.
Your
petition is also a way of rallying people by raising awareness, finding
people who want to object (who probably didn’t even know about the planning
application), people who will attend the planning committee meeting and
who are willing to become involved and / or join your task force. Engage
people in conversation, ask those that want to do more to help for their
phone numbers and e-mail address so that you can contact them.
As well as speaking to people you know, ask them to speak to people that they know. Go out canvassing – in shopping centres, at bus stops, knock on doors. Take both your petition and standard letter with you and ask people to sign them. See if you can persuade them to write to their ward councillors and the local MP also. Have some draft letters with you that they can use (remember, do not use standard letters for local politicians – your drafts will all have to be different in font, style, concerns being voiced etc.). As previously mentioned, your task force should be prepared to draft / type letters for people to use. Consider nominating a couple of members to take on this task.
Keep In Touch – Set Up A Phone Tree
Anyone
embarking on a campaign will find a phone tree to be an extremely useful
tool. It is the most effective and cost-efficient way of getting vital
information to the maximum number of people in the fastest time. It should
only be used to pass on details of real importance i.e. emergency meetings
to deal with matters arising in your campaign. More general information
can be circulated via newsletters, press releases, the letters page of
the local press and your website (see our pages on managing your publicity
machine).
It works like a family tree. The person at the top of the list calls 2-4 designated people with a message. Those 2-4 people will have a list of another 2-4 designated people to call with the message and so on. There is no limit to the number of people on a phone tree.
However, it will only work if all the numbers at the top of the tree pass on the information, so whoever is responsible for running the tree must make sure that those at the top are reliable and reasonably available – there’s no point having someone at the top who’s almost always out of the country on business. Do spot checks down the line to ensure that the message has got through. The organiser of the tree may want to duplicate his / her own number more than once at points in the tree so that he / she will be telephoned with the message.
Keep the message short and simple. Ask people to write down any dates, times, names etc. and read it all back to ensure the correct information goes down the line.
Some people may be reluctant to give out their name and phone number. The list must be confidential. The person in charge of the list must not disclose names and numbers to anyone without prior permission.
Organise a Public Meeting
A public
meeting is an excellent opportunity to galvanise your local community,
heighten the profile of your campaign and also humiliate McDonald’s into
the bargain. The venue should be an easily-accessible community gathering
place, such as a school, church hall, community centre, function room in
local pub etc. (Note: some of these may charge for the use of their facilities,
see later on for fund-raising).
A public meeting must be inclusive and include all stakeholders with a vested interest, such as:
It is important that you keep it friendly with McDonald’s and don’t look like rent-a-mob, despite your own feelings about this. Treat them with respect – we know, they’re not doing that to your community – but rise above it – don’t descend to their level. More about managing the actual meeting later.
You must let the local police know you are doing this, and also reassure them of your peaceful intentions. Your local police will have to deploy officers (and budget) to this – so get them on side and ensure all your supporters behave reasonably. The idea here is to express your views in a democratic and peaceful way and (hopefully) humiliate McDonald’s on the way; don’t let anyone vent anger & frustration at the expense of local police officers - don’t do anything that makes them have to arrest you or your supporters – they’d rather not – they have better things to do with their time – and this will do your cause no good at all. Remember – don’t get mad with McDonald’s – get even!
Advertise Your Public Meeting
Advertising is crucial to let people know that your public meeting is taking place and also to explain why it is so important that they attend. If people don’t know about it (and why it’s important) – they won’t turn up.
Your aim
is to get tons of people to turn up. Therefore it is essential that the
meeting (time, date, venue) is widely advertised – at least a week in advance.
Let the press know about it through one (or all) of the following three
mechanisms:
Also, don’t forget the power of speaking to people – knocking on doors, at shopping centres, bus stops etc. and giving them copies of your leaflets. Emphasise what’s at stake and the importance of them turning up – they might think that their voice / presence won’t make a difference – but it will – convince them of this!
Managing The Meeting
You are
a professional campaign organisation and this will be reflected in the
way that your public meeting is managed. You will need to assign a Chair,
sometimes this can be a key local campaigner with strong skills in this
field or perhaps the local MP (who won’t be part of the actual planning
decision) – someone who is able to manage the discussion dispassionately
and guillotine futile debates, and also deal with hecklers. It’s up to
you who you pick – but your group should be seen to give a fair hearing
to all interested parties (whether or not they agree with you) so you need
someone with the ability to do this.
A public meeting should not be an excuse for disparate groups to express their dissatisfaction with the world – your meeting should have clear, published objectives and an agenda – available as a handout to all who enter – so that everyone should understand the purpose of the meeting, its structure and format. And your Chair must control this.
If McDonald’s attend the meeting (which they usually do – along with their propaganda leaflets) they should be given a hearing. Give them a pre-agreed time slot to have their say, and we would recommend don’t shout them down. Let them say their pitiful piece. Campaigners, residents and other stakeholders who oppose McDonald’s can then also have their say and can put their viewpoints.
Your
public meeting will almost certainly include a Question and Answer session
where local people and stakeholders can ask the company about issues that
concern them. This usually takes the format of litter, noise and smells
and McDonald’s always promise communities the so-called ‘litter patrols’
– which are unenforceable by the local council and McDonald’s know it –
and they might even digress into their sponsorship of the ‘Keep Britain
Tidy’ campaign for the benefit of your local press and how they good they
are at litter management. At a public meeting in Surrey an 11-year old
boy tipped a sackful of Mclitter on the floor which had been collected
near a McDonald’s restaurant 2 miles away, he said: "If I could pick all
this up, why couldn’t you?" McDonald’s fine words about how they will manage
litter are just that (fine words) and everybody knows it. Ask any community
who has had the misfortune to be a neighbour of this company.
On the smells issue – they’ll promise it won’t be a problem – they will use state-of-the-art British Standard (BS) extraction equipment. But it still stinks to high heaven and there’s nothing you can do about it – it’s BS standard and will be approved at appeal (sorry – as inadequate as this is – this is what happens).
On the noise front – they will cite all their restaurants that are next to residents’ properties where they have put up acoustic screens and residents have had no problems. Well, that’s what McDonald’s will tell you – ask them how many of these restaurants were not wanted by residents in the first place, how many went to appeal (where McDonald’s won) and have they bothered to find out if their acoustic screens have worked? Ask them for their evidence that residents are happy with McDonald’s next door, even with the acoustic screens. We know that McDonald’s always quote all this nonsense and it tends to win at appeal – but they are just getting away with it.
For years they have been using these pitiful arguments at appeal – so they will probably welcome such questions where they can give you their pat answers. How about giving them some more awkward questions that they will find less easy to answer, ask them about why they think their development won’t cause problems with:
Don’t forget your own PR job at the public meeting – you can turn up with banners, placards, T-shirts with anti-McDonald’s logos (you can get these printed on at most T-shirt outlets).
Your agenda should factor in that McDonald’s leaves before the rest of you, and you should nominate someone to escort them from the premises. After McDonald’s representatives have left, you can then seek volunteers to help with your campaign. We suggest nominate a Task Force member to have sign-up sheets for people to use. Put all your own names on the sheet and any volunteers that you have so far, because no-one will volunteer if there are no names already there.
Of course, if McDonald’s don’t turn up then you have tons of PR material – this just blows the usual "We want to work with and be part of the local community" argument out of the water and so do with it what you will – but we certainly suggest (at the very least) a press job on this one. Don’t forget it costs McDonald’s time, money and aggravation from their people’s point of view to attend your public meetings. But if they are really interested in "working with the local community" then presumably they won’t have a problem with inconveniencing their people to turn up to your meeting.
Even if McDonald’s don’t turn up to the meeting – it should still go ahead. Get your views across – and get your publicity!
Organise Fund Raising
Running a campaign will cost money, even if only phone calls, letters, printing, photocopying. At the public meeting, you could ask for voluntary donations for the ‘fighting fund’. People will usually be very generous.
However,
you will need to show your local community that you are ‘above board’ with
any funds that you are managing, so you will need to nominate a named Treasurer
– ideally someone who has a good relationship with your Task Force but
isn’t an immediate member. In other words, a trustworthy third party.
You can set up a separate account for your ‘fighting funds’ – this is called a Treasurers Account. Make sure that your account is specifically called this. You will also need to demonstrate to your local community that you have ‘checks and balances’ in place to ensure that the funds are being managed appropriately and in the agreed interests of the cause, therefore we recommend that you have multiple signatories to cheques / use of funds, say 3 – 4 named people. Freely-given money is rightly sensitive, so you have to show that you are handling this in a quality manner.
So, how are going to get hold of all this money for your campaign! Well,
short of a millionaire benefactor, most communities do fund-raising events
which might include: 
Keep The Campaign Going
Once you’ve got up and running, you must keep your local community and your supporters know how the campaign is going. This can be done by:
Lobby at the Planning Committee Meeting
Leave your local councillors in no doubt about the strength of feeling against this development by organising a massive turnout of objectors at the planning committee meeting where the decision will be made.
If you live in a fairly large area, it can be difficult to entice people to travel to the council rooms to protest and attend the meeting – especially on warm, summer nights or cold, wet, winter evenings. Start off with posters / leaflets advertising the meeting in prominent places about a week before the time. Again, display locally in shop windows / cars / homes – leaflet drop as many houses as possible. See example publicity poster.
You need to start recruiting people when you go out with your petition and standard objection letter. Reassure people that they won’t be asked to speak – in fact, they are not allowed to. But their presence is key in putting pressure on councillors to refuse the planning permission. Ask people that are willing to attend the planning meeting if they need a lift or whether they would be willing to give a lift to a neighbour without transport. Take their name and phone numbers and say you’ll be in touch nearer the time to organise the ‘car pool’. Nominate a member of your task force to manage this.
A couple of days before the meeting, the ‘car pool’ manager should contact people who need or are giving lifts and arrange a meeting point (don’t leave people to their own devices) and introduce people to each other. This will ensure they turn up. People often think it doesn’t matter if they don’t turn out because someone else will – however, if everything does this then no-one will come – and your council won’t take the risk of voting against McDonald’s (because clearly no-one in the area cares about this).
You
will need to organise a large protest outside the civic centre on the night
of the meeting. Wave banners and placards, and have lots of people there
– but your protest must be peaceful. Otherwise you will lose
credibility. A protestor in one community group even lobbied McDonald’s
representative (deliberately) when she turned up at the civic centre for
the planning meeting, and invited her to sign their petition against the
McDonald’s development. It was done in a very good-natured way, and she
was completely taken aback - much to the amusement of all the objectors
and the local press.
Let the local press know you will be doing a lobby and see if you can negotiate a photographer. If you have developed a good relationship with the press during your campaign, hopefully this should be fairly straightforward.
If you are expecting large numbers of people (which you should be), then we recommend that you let the clerk to the planning committee know in advance so that he / she can ensure that the room used is large enough and that there are sufficient chairs for everyone.
Ensure that local objectors pack the planning committee room for the debate. Please note that objectors (others than those with a slot to do a speech) are not allowed to speak nor may anyone other than councillors ask questions. If you have questions that you want to be put to McDonald’s (or officers), you will need to prime a friendly councillor with these in advance.
However tempted you might be, we would suggest no jeering – not even when McDonald’s do their speech - don’t look like rent-a-mob – you could just greet them and their speech with stone silence. Avoid political comments. Be civilised and applaud the bits that are what you want to hear, especially the Task Force members when they do their speech(es) – give them a standing ovation. Also, when councillors say what you want to hear, give them cheers and rounds of applause. Leave them in no doubt as to the mood of the people.
Field
your best public speakers to do the speech on behalf of your community.
Don’t be intimidated. Your speakers will invariably be as good as (probably
better than) McDonald’s own representatives (who normally aren’t brilliant
at public speaking).
One group that we know of made up large (4’ x 3’) ‘picture boards’ of photographs of what they were talking about with headline text to illustrate their points which were held up as their speakers did their speeches.
It is important that people lobby at and attend the planning meeting in order to:
Understand the planning related issues
Write letters of objection
Lobby local politicians and other influential groups
Organise a petition
Set up a publicity machine
Research other legal issues
Get ready to fight McDonald’s appeal
How to occupy the site
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