Does showing up to the hearing matter?
The empty room approves everything
Summary
Data from board hearings reveals that who attends matters enormously — but not in the way you might expect. When objectors show up, refusal rates increase. When the architect (perit) is present, the approval rate is slightly higher. But the most common scenario — nobody shows up — results in overwhelming approval.
Attendance data is drawn from the subset of board hearings where attendance was recorded (~20,000 of 69,254 total entries). See methodology for coverage details.
Key findings
Hearing outcomes by attendance (cases with attendance data)
| Applicant | Objectors | Approved | Refused | Total | Approval rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Absent | Absent | 3,629 | 186 | 3,815 | 95.1% |
| Present | Absent | 154 | 22 | 176 | 87.5% |
| Absent | Present | 82 | 27 | 109 | 75.2% |
| Present | Present | 58 | 22 | 80 | 72.5% |
The objector effect
When no one shows up (the most common scenario by far): 95.1% approval.
When objectors show up (regardless of applicant): approval drops to 72–75%. That's a 20+ percentage point difference.
But objectors rarely attend — only 189 out of 4,180 recorded hearings (4.5%) had objectors present.
Does the architect's presence help?
| Architect (Perit) | Approved | Refused | Total | Approval rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Present | 13,249 | 692 | 13,941 | 95.0% |
| Absent | 1,548 | 161 | 1,709 | 90.6% |
When the architect attends, the approval rate is 95.0% vs 90.6% when absent — a modest 4.4-point gap. But since 89% of hearings have the architect present, it's more like: cases where the architect doesn't bother showing up are slightly more likely to be refused.
The attendance paradox
The system is designed for public participation — people can attend hearings to support or object to applications. But:
- 95% of hearings have neither applicant nor objectors present
- When people do attend, it's overwhelmingly applicants (who boost approval) rather than objectors
- The cases that get public scrutiny (objectors present) have materially different outcomes — but this scrutiny is vanishingly rare
Why this matters
The planning hearing system functions as a largely unobserved process. Public participation could shift outcomes by 20+ percentage points, but almost nobody participates. This raises questions about public awareness of hearings and whether the system is designed to encourage or discourage attendance.