ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how urban planning, through decades of change, has developed into a practice that seeks participation from the people who are affected by decisions made by professional planners. It charts the history of public involvement in planning, centred on a discussion of how planning and citizens often struggle to agree on the right form of participation opportunities. The chapter discusses how planning has been transformed from a scientific endeavour to an increasingly political activity, with differing levels of importance put on citizen knowledge and participation. Skeffington's aim was to shift planning from something that was viewed as an activity that was done to people, to something that should take place with people through wider public involvement. The new approach set out ways in principle in which citizens would be involved, and these would be outlined in a local authority's "statement of community involvement".
