ABSTRACT
Between 16 June 1989 (the start of the metropolitan planning process) and 1992, the attitude of planning officials within the Regional Services Council towards the issue of public participation in planning had been radically transformed. At the 16 June meeting, the chair of METPLAN had proposed that a metropolitan structure plan be drawn up and approved in terms of the minimum requirements of the 1985 Land Use Planning Ordinance of the Cape Province (RSC file 1989c). This Ordinance, still in effect today, provides for a structure plan to be drawn up by a local authority and then made available for ‘inspection and the lodging of objections or the making of representations . . . at the office of such a local authority’ (section 4(5)). The plan and any objections received must then be forwarded to the Provincial Administrator (section 4(6)) who can approve or reject the structure plan. Usually the availability of the plan for inspection, in the local authority offices, was advertised in the local newspapers, carried in small print and at the back of the paper.1 Clearly it would have to be an alert, literate and informed public to take advantage of the opportunity for participation offered by this legislation.
