ABSTRACT
Sir Colin Buchanan produced his well-known Report, Traffic in Towns, in 1963. A few years later, Runcorn, south of the Mersey, was also designated a new town which would receive population dispersed from Liverpool. The majority went to new towns like Cumbernauld, Livingston and Irvine, but there were also overspill agreements with neighbouring burghs. The Redcliffe-Maud Commission had to its credit that it officially declared that, 'Town and country have always been, and must be, interdependent'. There were even suggestions that the whole country might become a kind of extended museum with its post-industrial inhabitants being photographed against the exotic background of cotton mill or coal-mine. The amenity represented by the countryside became increasingly popular, which in turn brought fresh problems. The thrust behind these developments came from the realization that the ability to move goods speedily might be a key factor in the country's commercial success.
