ABSTRACT
The delays in structure plan preparation had frustrated the City Council's own local planning ambitions. Indeed the city produced no statutory plans at all during the 1970s. Nevertheless, the city planners had a tradition of publishing substantial and comprehensive informal plans as a mechanism for guiding planning decisions. In March 1983 the Council had approved a new strategy for renewing the council housing stock. In 1987 Liverpool City Council follow suit with a document that: should provide the starting point for a comprehensive re-evaluation of planning strategy in the city centre which has remained largely unaltered since the 1965 City Centre Plan. Merseyside County Council was abolished under the Local Government Act 1985 and new arrangements were made for strategic planning in metropolitan areas. Each metropolitan district was required to prepare a 'Unitary Development Plan' that contained both general policies as well as detailed site-specific proposals.
