ABSTRACT
The vagueness of the term “public participation” is by now notorious, and a discussion of public participation in planning could quite reasonably consider in some detail power relations within the planning system as a whole. Alternatively, and, again, without overstretching the meaning of the term, it could focus on the minutiae of current legislation or governmental regulations relating to publicity and consultation in development planning or development control. The discussion in this chapter will be located somewhere between these extremes. Its chief concern will be the ways in which local planning authorities should consider the issue of “public” influence over planning decisions in general, and development planmaking in particular, but it does not consider semi-judicial processes such as public inquiries (where it has been shown that outcomes appear to favour those with knowledge of the planning and development process; see Adams et al. 1990).
