Information is Power: Public Disclosure of Information in the Planning Decision-Making Process

Abstract

The legitimacy and effectiveness of community engagement in planning lies in the extent to which the public can access the information required for informed decision-making. The control of 'commercially sensitive material' by local authorities acting as gatekeepers is a therefore a challenging area of information management within the planning application process. Through the analysis of key cases in England, this paper identifies that regulations do provide for 'commercially sensitive material' to be released to communities in many cases, but there is a need to achieve better transparency for communities about what information should be available about a development proposal.

The calculative turn in land value capture: Lessons from the English planning system

“…The inability of the community to scrutinise viability models has also been a source of considerable dispute. There is a well-established body of work on public participation and transparency in the planning system (see Sheppard, Burgess and Croft, 2015 for a review). De Fine Licht (2014) demonstrates the relationships between perceived transparency, perceived fairness and decision acceptance.…”

Major Wind Energy & the Interface of Policy and Regulation: A Study of Welsh NSIPs

“…Significant steps have been taken to bring the public into decision-making at different governance levels, including into 'Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects' (NSIPs) in the UK Rydin et al, 2015). The success of different types of participation is a matter of continued debate, including in this journal which has provided critiques of participation in planning (Brownill & Parker, 2010), including specifically for policy-making (Wilker et al, 2016) and regulatory stages (Sheppard et al, 2015). This article examines public perspectives where the public is involved in a particularly complex system of decision-making at different governance levels.…”