ABSTRACT
One may note from the history of regional and strategic planning in the UK that there have been three distinct periods since the mid-twentieth century during which “the Plan” itself has achieved particular prominence: the years immediately following the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act; those immediately following 1972; and those from 1991 to date (Yewlett 2001a). This interest in “the Plan” led inevitably to a parallel interest in appropriate methods of plan production. As John Muller put it:
historically, the pre-requisite for planning has been access to tenable methods which are responsive to the needs of society . . . [T]he ongoing quest of the [planning] profession to maintain social relevance and disciplinary legitimacy . . . has required of planning that it modify its methods to accommodate the changes that have occurred in society from time to time.
