Site Planning and Public Participation

Public participation is crucial to successful site planning. At the site planning level that and identifiable group of people can be expected to react with considered opinions about precisely defined spaces - the spaces which they or people like them will use.

The questionnaire is the most common means used by planners to try and find out what people want. There are, however, problems with all forms of questionnaire designed to involve the public in helping to plan or design a site.

Questionnaires can only deal with people's reactions to that with which they are already familiar. All of us can only respond to questions about facilities and environment within the limits of experience, whether these experiences are direct or indirect. Questionnaires are much less useful as a predictive planning tool. People can describe their reaction to what already exists, but are less good at describing what they would like in future.

With such strategic issues to be dealt with by the planning process, alongside the basic social and economic needs of a local population, it is perhaps not suprising that the less quantifiable aspects will influence the quality of human life.