ABSTRACT

Introduction Local Authorities are increasingly having to consider public opinion in and reaction to their planning decisions. The next decade will witness a growing demand for stronger community participation that results in citizens having a reeil say in what happens to their local areas. Agenda 21, a major outcome of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Quarrie, 1992), states that by 1996, local authorities should have undertaken a consultative process with their populations in order to achieve a consensus on a Local Agenda 21. Agenda 21 suggests that this should be achieved through a consultative process during which the local authorities would learn from citizens and from local, civic, community, business and industrial organizations and acquire information needed for formulating the best strategies (Quarrie, 1992). This paper will briefly examine some of the problems of achieving this degree of public participation and will then describe the development and application of a new methodology that could counter many of these difficulties.