ABSTRACT
Public participation can be defined as unpaid voluntary activity undertaken by citizens that influences government, policy-making and democratic accountability. Public participation in landscape projects is most commonly found used in conjunction with regeneration projects. Community involvement in such projects has been defined as ‘the active participation of local inhabitants in schemes to regenerate disadvantaged or declining areas’ (European Commission, 1997, p. 9). In the UK participation generally occurs through consultation, through information dissemination and the incorporation of feedback from
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process. The term ‘stakeholder’ is now commonly used to define individuals who represent groups, companies, etc. which have a particular interest in the existing state of the environment or in change which might occur. Landscape professionals have been involved in many ways in projects involving this kind of consultation of the general public by environmental planning and management bodies and this has for some time been standard procedure in the development plan process in the UK. The UK is quite unusual – even within Europe – in that public consultation is a requirement of the statutory planning system – such as in the development of Local and District Plans. Although the situation is by no means black and white, this discretionary, rather than zonal planning system, means that the public has greater potential for input into landscape development and planning decisions. In zoning systems it is generally more difficult for the public to influence decisions since the detailed agenda for discussion is largely already set by the developers and planners (Barlow, 1995). The semijudicial process of public inquiry in the UK is another long-standing method by which the general community can object to proposals to change the environment although in some cases, such as in Simplified Planning Zones, this process has become optional (see Barlow, 1995). Chapter 4 discusses other ways in which public participation occurs or public opinion may be voiced in landscape issues through environmental activism, such as social movements, specific issue groups and direct action.
