Correspondence: Deborah Peel, Department of Civic Design, University of Liverpool, The Gordon Stephenson Building, 74 Bedford Street South, Liverpool L69 7ZQ, UK. E-mail: dpeel@liv.ac.uk

¹is Lecturer at the Department of Civic Design at the University of Liverpool. Her research interests currently concentrate on the modernisation of the land use planning system and the changing role of spatial planning in contemporary public policy. This includes empirical work relating to the evolution of the planning regulatory system and new developments in practice, including marine spatial planning. She has undertaken joint work on urban regeneration and city-visioning, social inclusion and public participation, and the behavioural turn in public policy.

²is Professor at the Department of Civic Design at the University of Liverpool. His research interests are concerned with the modernisation of territorial governance, the concept of territorial capital, the evolution of strategic planning practices, land use planning, land and property development and infrastructure provision.

Received 22 July 2007; Revised 22 July 2007.

Abstract

This paper presents a case study of Antony Gormley's Another Place to explore the role that the land use planning system plays in mediating and regulating the developmental impacts of public art activities in the public interest. It describes the public policy process of securing development rights with respect to a temporary and then a permanent art installation, and considers how the positive and potentially detrimental impacts of the artwork were contested and deliberated. The discussion examines how the re-imaging, economic, and cultural benefits were balanced against environmental and conservation objectives, and health and safety concerns. The paper explores the scalar complexity of public policy choices in the sphere of cultural regeneration policy where different cultural values come together in the regulatory theatre of land use planning decision-making. The paper argues that the statutory planning system has an important role to play in creating the necessary democratic space so as to determine whether development should proceed, and in providing the necessary management and enforcement regimes to monitor and regulate developmental impacts over the longer term.