Principles and Practice of Town and Country Planning

Abstract

This book has been a source of great pleasure to me; it seems to have brought me friends, if only by means of corres~ pondence, from allover the world and I take this opportunity of greeting them. Changes in law, techniques and ideas have necessitated filirly frequent revisions, and this edition incorporates changes as gn~at as those which marked the publication of the second edition in 1959.' British Planning is certainly in a curious state. Planning has again become a popular activity, indeed a bandwaggon upon which climb many scantily equipped adventurers. Solid achievement, however, has not noticeably increased. In these circumstances the sifting of wheat from chaff in order to produce a book which shall fully describe worthwhile advances in Planning thought while rejecting, either by rebuttal or omission, the shallow and meretricious is difficult. especially as time alone will determine with certainty the categories into which ideas ought finally to be placed. , Thls edition makes changes in format which I hope will be pleasing to most readers. The most obvious is the change in page shape. The shape used for the second and third editions attracted about as many supporters as objectors but the'liJ,tter were rather more vociferous than the former so we bow to their opinion. As regards content, tl1ere is a general revision and updating, particularly with regard to Planning Law. but three features merit special mention:- - (I) Chapter 4 (The Development Plan) is entirely new. It traces the history of changes in the form and content of Development Plans from 1948 until the present time. Without such an account (never previously published so far as I am aware) a full understanding and basis for assessment of the new Development Plan_system recommended in The Future of Development Plans and incorporated in the Town and Country Planning Act 1968. is hardly possible. I hope this system will prove more successful than I think it will be. (2) I have added a second example ofa theoretical new town to that used in previous editions. This demonstrates a method of separating pedestrians from fast moving motor traffic throughout a complete urban area but especially within residential areas. It shows how costly such a process is. though it is carried out in the most economiqLi fashion I could devise. Society will have to decide whether the cost is worth incurring; personally I think it probably is. but it is important that there should be no doubt about the inevitability of, the cost. ' (3) In Chapter 9 I have set out in some detail a suggested method of comparing the costs of alternative Plans for a town. It was a matter for regret to me that I could not take this subject further and produce a suitable computer programme but in the time available this could Dot be done. I believe, however. that the ideas and fundamental method I have outlined are pf great potential importance and point the way t9wards the development of genuine scientific methods in physical Planning, My indebtedness to my 014 friend and cOlleague Professor N. Lichfie1d for the origins of these ideas will be obvious to all who are familiar with his work. Here. at all events, is a book with a lot of new material in it. I hope it will prove as acceptable as its predece