ABSTRACT
A range of fundamental criticisms of the planning system have revolved around the tendency of many local planning authorities to resort to reactive and largely negative approaches to planning, in so doing, losing sight of the proactive and positive role envisaged for planning when the comprehensive system was introduced as part of the attempt to build a new and fairer society following the Second World War. Reflecting on the fiftieth anniversary of the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act, for example, Cullingworth (1997b) argued that planning in the UK has lost its vision. Thus although restrictive controls were (and remain) a necessary part of the machinery of the planning system as envisaged in 1947, these were originally merely intended to be the underpinning for the positive purposes of planning – to rebuild the cities, build the new towns, locate development in the public interest in accordance with plans, and protect buildings and landscapes of community value. In that sense, he argued, planning was central to the reconstruction programme that also included plans for education, economic development, health and agriculture. Today, however, although plans continue to exist, these have been restricted in scope and are restrictive in character, containing little of a positive or coordinating nature. Thus, he suggests, positive planning has been jettisoned in favour of negative planning (Cullingworth, 1997b, pp. 949, 956).
