Publisher's Synopsis
This is a study of how community action has challenged urban planning in Belfast. It includes a case study of community groups working with a planning aid centre to play a prominent role in the Belfast Urban Area Plan 2001. At a major public enquiry, the centre's counsel presented the results of this work and pressed the case for planning that meets social needs, tackles inequality and discrimination and safeguards the environment. The book shows what effect this high level of popular mobilization had on the plan. The author uses the issues raised by community action to examine criticallly the capacity of planning to respond to people's needs. He concludes that the scope of planning is too narrow to deliver what the public often expect of it, and that much improved channels of communication with the public are needed.
