The 1968 Act and Local Planning - Trust Annual Report 1969
The question of greater public participation in planning was discussed in the Annual Report for 1968, with particular reference to the Town and Country Planning Act of 25th October, 1968, which superseded the Town and Country Planning Act of 1962.
Planning in its various aspects, especially preservation (or conservation), featured prominently on the agenda of a Civic Trust Conference of Amenity Societies at the University of York during the week-end 27th-29th September, 1968, under the Chairmanship of the Trust's President, Mr. Duncan Sandys, M.P., which was attended by some 350 persons, including representatives of more than 150 local branches and organisations in the United Kingdom concerned with the safeguarding and sympathetic development of urban and rural areas, the Winchester Preservation Trust being represented by Sir Lionel and Lady Lamb.
The Conference reviewed the objectives and efficacy of the Civic Amenities Act of 27th July, 1967, designed according to the preamble "to further provision for the protection and improvement of buildings of architectural or historical interest and of the character of areas of such interest; for the preservation and planting of trees; and for the orderly disposal of disused vehicles". The Conference considered as a commendable innovation the requirement in this Act that every local planning authority should from time to time determine which parts of their district are areas of special architectural or historical interest, the character or appearance of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance, and should designate them as "Conservation Areas" for approval by the Minister of Housing and Local Government. Where any application for development of land within a Conservation Area is considered by the local planning authority as likely to be detrimental to the public interest, it is made incumbent upon them to publish due notice in the Press and to make all plans available for inspection for 21 days and to take into consideration any relevant representations made within that period. This provision, however, would seem to fall somewhat short of consultation with appropriate members of the community whereby the consensus of opinion could be ascertained before planning and to leave undue scope to the Minister and the local planning authorities, generally in the person of the County Council through its Planning Department.
Opportunity for closer contact between planners and pub is perhaps offered by the new Town and Country Planning Act of 1968, described in the preamble as designed “to amend the law relating to town and country planning, the compulsory acquisition and disposal of land by public authorities: to make provision for grants for research relating to, and education with respect to, the planning and design of the physical environment." The Act imposes upon local planning authorities the following obligations: (a) to carry out, in consultation with neighbouring authorities where appropriate, an extensive survey of their area with relation to potential development and planning, taking into account land area and its uses, the size, composition and distribution of population, and communications and traffic; (b) to draw up, at the Minister's discretion, a structure plan formulating their policies for the use of the land (including improvement of physical environment and traffic management); and (c) to initiate local plans within their area.
In preparing either a structure or a local plan the local planning authority is required to "take such steps as will in their opinion secure that (1) adequate publicity be given in their area to the relevant survey and to matters which they propose to include in the plan; (2) persons who may be expected to desire an opportunity of making representations in the above connection are made aware that they are entitled to an opportunity of so doing; and (3) an adequate opportunity in this respect will be afforded and any representations made within the prescribed period will be considered."
The Act proceeds to make detailed provision for public enquiry or other form of hearing of such objections, but does not specifically guarantee prior consultation with responsible local opinion in the actual drafting of plans, though some discretionary latitude in this direction might be construed from Article 64 under the title of Delegation of Planning Functions.
The interpretation of complex and sometimes ambiguous legislation is only too apt to baffle the layman, so that public confidence has largely to depend on the manner in which the laws are actually implemented. Some guidance on the subject, however, is contained in a small pamphlet entitled "Protecting Our Historical Buildings: A Guide to the Legislation" issued in 1969 by the Ministry of Housing and Local Government and Welsh Office in concert with the Central Office of Information, which briefly explains the requisite qualifications and procedure for the listing of historic buildings, their protection from senseless demolition, and the solicitation of grants for their maintenance. It is disappointing to find in this official brochure confirmation of the suspicion that the fact of a building being listed as of special architectural or historic interest does not mean that it will be preserved intact in all circumstances, but merely that demolition must not be allowed unless the case first has been fully examined, and that alterations must preseve the character of the buildings as far as possible. The brochure lists as relevant enactments the following statutes (in addition to the two Town and Country Planning Acts of 1962 and 1968 and the Civic Amenities Act 1968): Historic Buildings and Ancient Monuments Act 1953 and the Local Authorities (Historic Buildings) Act 1962.
In consonance with the above legislation the following documents of particular interest have been issued by the Hampshire County Council in their capacity of regional local planning authority: County of Hampshire Development: Winchester Town Plan, 1966; Winchester Town Centre Draft Plan, May 1966; Revised Winchester Town Centre Plan, January 1968, which introduces two Conservation Areas, one in the town centre and the other in the Hyde Abbey neighbourhood; and an Order creating a further Conservation Area in the main sections of St. Cross in July 1969.
The last item, in conjunction with the opening of the Kingsworthy Link to the Winchester By-pass on 20th August, 1969 (two months ahead of schedule), should help to assuage the anxieties and traffic tribulations of the residents of St. Cross and adjoining districts, as well as encourage hopes that this may presage the abandonment of the inner link project, the protests against which were noted in the 1968 Annual Report summary of the City's internal road plans. These plans and other projects, with appropriate maps, are embodied in the Winchester Town Centre Plan of 1968, the introduction to which in explanation of its background states:
"The Town Centre Map is not a statutory document and will not require the approval of the Minister of Housing and Local Government. Public discussion and comment, following the publication of the draft Town Centre Map in May 1966, has however been taken into account and the Plan, now adopted by the Local Planning Authority, represents the current policy of that Authority. It is an assessment of the problems and possibilities of the Town Centre reflecting the process of survey, analysis and policy formation lying behind planning decisions and any formal proposals to amend the development plan. The object of the Map is to lay down principles which will enable the City to retain all that it values in charm and character and yet remain convenient and economically healthy. The Map should be a simple statement of major objectives, many of which cannot be fully achieved for a long time."
Hope that the public may have a regular, albeit still vicarious, liaison with the competent authorities, in regard to schemes of this sort is suggested by the recent press report (e.g. Hampshire Chronicle, 2nd August, 1969) of a proposal for the creation of four Advisory Committees, to be responsible to the Hampshire County Council through their Planning Committee, designed to "streamline the handling of planning applications" regarding historical buildings and also to "involve the public more in consultation." It was also reported that the Hampshire County Council Special Sub-Committee on Historic Buildings and Conservation had decided to meet representatives of the Civic Trust, the Council for British Archaeology, the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Town Planning Institute, the Council for the Preservation of Rural England, and the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society, to discuss the composition of these Advisory Committees. It was added that the Winchester City Council were considering the creation of an analagous Advisory Committee.
The proceedings of the Conference at York amply illustrated the ways and extent that groups of local residents organized into what are generically classed as amenity societies, of which there are at least 650 in the United Kingdom loosely associated with the Civic Trust, can make wise and competent contributions to the protection and improvement of the nation's urban and rural heritage, and serve as a brake upon any exuberant or iconoclastic tendencies on the part of the 200 or so local planning authorities in Britain, not always mindful of the precept that in old towns planning needs to be based upon sensitive appreciation of historical perspectives.
There is an ever-present risk that planning for planning's sake may become as "trendy" as scruffy hirsuteness or rowdy demonstrations. Equally, however, there should be an awareness of the danger of preservation societies becoming unduly obsessed with a preservation complex. It would be as well, too, for both planners and preservationists to keep in mind the eventuality that the basis and range of their respective responsibilities and programmes might be subject to sudden and drastic repercussions from economic and political factors outside their terms of reference, such as for instance, the sort of regional and administrative adjustments envisaged in the recommendations of the Royal Commission published on 31st May, 1969, in what is generally referred to as the Redcliffe-Maud Report. Another cloud on the horizon is the prospect of an extensive reorganisation of Southern Hampshire with a massive Solent City and "corridor" area foreshadowed by the Buchanan Feasibility Plan of 1966.
Public consciousness of the implications of these projects is reflected by the studies and counter-proposals being undertaken by various bodies with a view to mitigating, if not preventing, further erosion of popular participation in decisions about purely local administration. Thus the progress of these alternative deliberations merits particular attention in present unsettled circumstances.