ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns the autonomous ability of community groups to identify and contest issues within planning processes. It assesses the nature and extent of planning related community activism, drawing comparisons between the West, centre and East. Anti-municipalism opposes the claims of representative local government to represent local communities. Planning-related community activism in these areas had many of the attributes associated with groups from affluent areas in the West. The service provided at Red Gables was being accessed for the most part by black families in Tottenham who had to travel across the borough to avail of it. Muswell Hill anti-Controlled Parking Zones (CPZ) activists were particularly exercised by the Councils policy of counting non-responses to its consultation exercise as support for the scheme. The chapter concludes, that, the differences between the politics of community activism in the East and West are ultimately explained by the extreme socio-economic contrasts between the best-off and worst-off parts of the borough.
