The thesis is concerned with the prospects for reducing strategic-local tensions in the British planning process. It examines the conflicts surrounding small general aviation aerodromes as a means of understanding these tensions, why they have evolved, and if they might be reconciled through planning reform. The only prior academic research to have touched upon this issue through general aviation has been an ESRC funded project undertaken by Gallent and colleagues (1999), who found aerodromes provided a microcosm of planning's issues. Building on this work, the thesis develops what is meant by strategic-local tensions, which in broad terms are described as differences between national and regional guidance/plans and what actually takes place locally. Moving from a basic research question it develops a wide planning perspective based on the literature by discussing the meaning of planning, its history and issues for example, how conflicts in planning might be influenced by the broader socio-political environment. The thesis then arrives at three hypotheses which question the effectiveness of the existing strategic guideline implementation process, develops a local planning authority framework and addresses issues of reflectivity and bias. Results from three national surveys of pilots, aerodromes and manufacturers, plus longitudinal analysis of government and other datasets, are then used to detail a comprehensive and unique description of general aviation, which includes a costing based account of the direct expenditure of flying activity. This provides a substantive foundation for a local planning authority survey which both extends previous boundaries and enables the process of implementing strategic objectives to be disaggregated and evaluated. Field visits to twenty six aerodromes and five local authorities are subsequently used to explore gaps within the strategic implementation process and to develop conclusions, within the wider landscape of planning, about the nature of strategic local tensions and implications for planning reform.

Partnership and participation are terms at the centre of current urban regeneration policy initiatives in the UK. The modernising local government agenda has seen a significant shift towards placing greater emphasis on the role of partnerships, and voluntary and community organisations (VCOs) (often referred to collectively as the third sector) are recognised as a key partner in this process. This research conceptualises the third sector within local governance by examining partnership working as a form of community governance. This involves exposing the power relations that underpin such a form of governance in the context of recent urban regeneration initiatives. The research examines two case studies of on-going exercises in community participation within Local Strategic Partnerships in London, the Haringey Community Empowerment Network and the Enfield Community Empowerment Network, in order to interpret how attempts to incorporate the VCO sector in urban regeneration policy in these two areas has unfolded. Through analysis of the policy implementation process as seen in the experience and judgements of key VCO actors involved, what is discovered is that VCOs are embedded in the process and exercise influence, but this influence is "selective" and "focussed", exerted at different levels in the structures and impacted upon by the capacities of VCOs. Findings also demonstrate that not all VCOs wish to be actively engaged in the same way and that new roles in service delivery for VCOs create operational difficulties for the sector. Local conditions relating to socioeconomic factors and local political subcultures play an important role in determining outcomes, which are in fact highly differentiated in the two adjacent areas. Local political conditions are seen to relate to ongoing "discourses" of local governance in terms of "agonistic" and "good bureaucracy" debates as well as theories of power.

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