Approaches to Democratic Involvement: Widening Community Engagement in the English Planning System

Participation has become integral to the delivery of public services, as governments attempt to involve citizens in decision making through processes of consultation and engagement. This paper addresses the issue of community participation in the context of the English planning system, which has recently been restructured to focus more sharply on integrating communities in the planning process. It presents findings of research into the workings of the reformed planning system, in particular in relation to the objective of public participation, using the case of the Planning Aid service. The paper sets the discussion in the context of two different forms of democracy (representative and deliberative democracy) and associated strategies for participation. It then outlines the recent reforms in the planning system, highlighting the different approaches to participation that are being applied. The paper then examines the case of Planning Aid, a service that aims to involve disadvantaged groups in the planning system. The paper concludes that the outcomes from recent experiences of participation in planning are in part due to the “hybrid” approaches that are emerging within the system. While this provides the potential for more inclusive planning, it is argued that this “hybridity” needs to be acknowledged by policy makers and practitioners if strategies and mechanisms are to be put in place that respond to the demands of different forms of democracy.