Ten top tips for community campaigning

1) expect it to be a long run

2) celebrate small victories

3) gather the opinions of local people (local people are local experts)

4) gather the opinions of non-local experts

5) don’t accept “no” as an answer (“no” is an excuse, not an answer)

6) keep a record of everything (because people will come and go and they won’t otherwise know what has gone before)

7) expect setbacks (because nothing is linear and you’ll go in circles from time to time)

8) be patient with the naysayers since they can sometimes become your firmest advocates

9) be active online to promote and rebut

and…finally

10) hang on to the fact that, however unlikely it may sometimes seem, common sense will prevail!