ABSTRACT
The British new towns are the subject of both public curiosity and self-congratulation. The DOE, the TCPA and members of parliament refer frequently to their international reputation. The unapologetic tone of this, the DOE's main submission to the first sitting of the Select Committee, suggests that the ad hoc developments are seen retrospectively as a form of flexibility and adaptation to change. For whatever reason, the DOE has resisted the claims of new town local authorities to be treated as a discrete interest group in the formulation of new towns policy. During the 1958 debates on the proposed Commission for the New Towns, the Conservative government had expressed the view that the role of local government was essentially a limited one: to provide services. The continuing ability of town planners to see their function as one of tidying up the environment is explained by Ruth Glass (1959) as stemming from the disciplines from which planning draws recruits.
