Introduction

This chapter addresses the importance of public perceptions of unfairness in land use planning in a city context. We examine the psychological and institutional dimensions of planning that promote perceptions of unfairness among the public, especially the members of a community selected to ‘host’ a contentious development proposal (otherwise known as a locally unwanted land use (LULU)). We draw attention to lessons that developers, professional planners, planning policy makers and planning decision makers might learn from one notable attempt by a local planning authority to use innovative methods to make, and be seen to make, a fair decision relating to a LULU. While the particular study of decision making we refer to is not located in Newcastle, it is city based, and a comparable Tyneside-based case does exist (see Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council v Secretary of State for the Environment (1995)). Common examples of LULUs include: windfarms, mobile telephone base stations (masts), power stations, factories that discharge pollutants and waste incinerators.

Perceptions of unfairness, the Newcastle Fairness Commission and the planning system

Perceptions of unfairness in planning decision making is one aspect of the increasing levels of concern of western societies with the creation and distribution of risks, identified in Ulrich Beck's Risk Society (Beck, 1992). In planning, the fear generated, mostly in a host community, by a LULU, is formally known as ‘public concern’. This concept has gained legal recognition as a ‘material consideration’ (see section 70(2) of the Town and Country Planning Act (TCPA) 1990) in the facility-siting decision stage of the planning system (Piatt, 1997). If public concern arises in the context of a planning application, it must be taken into account by a decision maker. The failure to have regard to a material consideration results in a flawed decision, which may then be the subject of a legal challenge. Detailed consideration of the concept of public concern in planning law is dealt with elsewhere (Stanley, 1998).

In regard to what the public perceive as fair or unfair we draw upon the important work of the Newcastle Fairness Commission (Newcastle Fairness Commission, 2012), which produced a number of fairness principles to guide decision making in the public sector.