1. Introduction
In June 1998 the West Yorkshire Village of Slaithwaite carried out a 'Planning For Real'® (PFR) exercise to identify the views and opinions of local residents regarding the environment in which they lived and how they would like their village to develop in the future. The whole process was organised by Colne Valley Trust (CVT), an independent community based rural agency, which promotes and facilitates the economic, social and environmental regeneration of the valley. The PFR exercise is a participation exercise developed by the The Neighbourhood Initiatives Foundation (NIF)*.
Consultations with Kirklees Metropolitan Council's (KMC) Environment Unit helped identify the PFR exercise as an ideal opportunity to compare traditional methods of public participation in environmental decision making with new techniques being developed in the research project at the University. As part of a wider Government funded project under the name Virtual Society? the research carried out in this case study has aimed to conduct on-line experiments using prototype web based decision making systems. Analysis of user responses and the evaluation of the potential of these systems in democratising the decision making process is discussed. This will help to assist in the development of new theory in participatory environmental decision making.
The systems under development are essentially World Wide Web (WWW) fronted Geographical Information Systems (GIS). A GIS is a powerful computer-based tool designed for the mapping and analysis of geographical data and is widely used by planning authorities. The complexity of the GIS is hidden from the public user, but retains the ability to build up several scenarios or proposals based on particular choices made. This provides the members of the public with a powerful tool allowing them to make better informed decisions which can be fed back into the planning process. While GIS technology in the past has often been referred to as elitist due to its complicated user interface and high start-up costs this type of system breaks down certain barriers to access allowing the general public the use of such technology over the WWW.
* The Neighbourhood Initiatives Foundation (NIF) is a National Charity, founded in 1988, with the main aim of maximising the participation of local people in decisions that affect their neighbourhoods and their quality of life. The founding director, Dr Tony Gibson, devised "Planning For Real" in the 1970s as a technique that is employed by the NIF fieldwork team. NIF has continued to develop and adapt this primary tool to meet both local and strategic consultation needs and as an essential process in community development programmes. NIF fieldworkers usually facilitate the process using large 3D scale models of the local area.
