Designed to Disengage: How Bad Communication is Undermining Democracy in Wirral

I’ve been critical of Wirral Council lately — and for good reason.

This isn’t about negativity. It’s about systems that don’t work, decisions that aren’t visible, and a structure that makes it almost impossible for residents to follow what’s really happening. And I say that not as a complainer, but as a strategist. Someone who’s worked in communications and behavioural design for over two and a half decades. Someone who understands that when transparency fails, trust fails — and when trust fails, democracy is in trouble.

This isn’t a rant. It’s a constructive response to a broken setup. A professional perspective on why so many people feel shut out of the process — and how we can fix it.

The System Isn’t Transparent — It’s Opaque by Design

Try to track how decisions are made in Wirral, and you hit a wall. You’ll find committee minutes and reports buried in dense PDFs. You won’t know who voted for what without serious digging. And even then you won't find the information. Projects appear, vanish, then re-emerge under new names. Consultations come and go without clarity or closure.

This isn’t open governance. It’s obfuscation.

In 2025, this shouldn’t be happening. We have the digital tools. We can build dashboards showing what decisions are being made, by whom, at what cost, with what level of public support. But none of that exists — because the system either doesn’t prioritise it or benefits from making the process inaccessible.

And when you can’t see what’s going on, bad things follow. Mistakes. Waste. Decisions with no accountability. I’m not accusing anyone of wrongdoing, but I am saying the current system invites it, simply by making scrutiny difficult.

But I want to be crystal clear about one thing: this isn’t an attack on the council staff. Most of the officers working within Wirral Council are doing hard, often thankless work. They are holding vital services together. They’re supporting our most vulnerable residents. They’re keeping bins emptied, schools supported, roads repaired, all while navigating complex legal frameworks and budget pressures that would make most people give up.

What I’m criticising is the political culture. When elected members push through policies that ignore public consultation, when party agendas override practical delivery, when ideology trumps lived experience — that’s where trust collapses.

And this is not isolated to one political party. Labour, Conservatives, Greens, Lib Dems — all four have had influence, and all four have contributed to the current financial mess and loss of public confidence. The debt, the asset sales, the planning chaos, this hasn’t happened in a vacuum. It’s the cumulative result of poor leadership across the board.

The Behavioural Science of Disengagement

This is where my background comes in. I work in the creative industries, in behavioural science and communications. My job is to understand how people engage, trust, and act — and how systems either support or undermine that.

Here’s a fundamental truth: people don’t engage with processes that make them feel stupid, lost, or ignored. They disengage. Not out of laziness, but because the system is designed in a way that punishes interest and rewards apathy.

Low consultation response rates? That’s not apathy. That’s friction. Long, jargon-heavy surveys. Short deadlines. No clarity about what happens next. People sense their input won’t matter, so they opt out.

Same with voter turnout. When decisions seem pre-determined, when consultations get ignored, when councillors appear more loyal to party whips than to residents — people stop believing their voice matters.

This is design failure. Not of roads and pavements, but of democratic experience.

But it can be fixed. This is exactly what we help global brands with every day: building trust, reducing friction, creating meaningful interaction. With the right design and communication strategy, we could radically improve civic engagement across Wirral — and do it quickly.

Wirral Has a Design Problem

There’s a deeper layer to this too. Because when you strip it all back, Wirral doesn’t just have a transparency problem. It has an identity problem.

It has a logo. A typeface. But it doesn’t have a story.

Wirral isn’t one place. It’s many — each with its own culture, voice, and rhythm. Birkenhead is not West Kirby. New Brighton is not Heswall. Each town deserves its own sense of identity, and together, those identities need a shared narrative that represents who we are now — and where we’re going.

A strong place brand isn’t superficial. It’s strategic. It attracts investment. It boosts pride. It gives residents and visitors alike a reason to believe in a shared future.

And here’s the thing: we already have the people to build it. Wirral is full of creative talent. Filmmakers. Photographers. Performers. Writers. Designers. People with the skills to shape how this place sees itself — and how it presents itself to the world.

We should be commissioning them. Funding them. Handing over the mic. Let them tell our stories — not through PR or brochures, but through lived experience. Let them define what it means to be from Wirral now, not 30 years ago.

Place identity isn’t a “nice to have.” It’s emotional infrastructure. And without it, we drift.

Let’s Build Something Better

So no — I’m not negative. I’m just not willing to shrug at systems that clearly aren’t working. That’s why I’m applying AI to council minutes. Why I’m tracking decisions. Why I’m trying to map out what could be possible if we just made things visible, simple, and accountable.

We need open data. Transparent decision-making. Consultations that matter. Dashboards people can actually use. And we need to start telling better stories about ourselves — stories that reflect who we are now, and who we want to be. This is all within reach. The tools exist. The talent exists. What’s missing is the will.

But I believe in this place. I believe in the people here. And I believe we can build something better — together.

That’s why I’ve been critical.

That’s why I’ll keep going.

And that’s why this isn’t just an article — it’s an open invitation.