The motorway age (1955–79) - Transport Policy and Planning in Great Britain - page 80

of gradually running down services before applying for closure proceedings so that the
amount of residual hardship that could be demonstrated was minimal.) Usually the
closure notice was accompanied by reference to alternative existing or proposed bus
services. However no statutory protection surrounded these services and as subsequent
research confirmed (Hillman and Whalley 1980), objectors were right to be sceptical
about their adequacy and permanence.
Because of differences in the strength of local opposition actual implementation of
Beeching's programme was patchy. As route closures of more than branch line status
came to be considered it became more difficult to suggest reasonable alternatives and
communities feared that a social and economic lifeline would be cut. Lines in remote
areas such as Central Wales and in Scotland which were the most expensive to retain
were also the most politically sensitive to close. Following the change of government in
1964 Labour Ministers began to refuse closure applications and indicated that the full
implementation of the Beeching proposals would be unacceptable. Because of growing
concerns about urban traffic congestion many passenger services in the provincial
conurbations also benefited from a reprieve.
As far as freight is concerned Beeching noted that longer distance containerised
transport was one of the potential growth markets for rail. However attempts by the
redoubtable Labour Minister Barbara Castle to generate additional freight on the
rail network as a whole proved a complete failure. Under the 1968 Transport Act
the old system of carrier licensing (which protected the longer distance rail market)
was abolished, with the intention of replacing it by a new quantity licensing system
designed to favour rail for heavy goods journeys over 100 miles. To allow time for the
development of 'Freightliner' container services a two-year delay was inserted before
this provision was to come into force. In the event the government changed hands in
1970 and the proposal was abandoned.
The promotion of rail freight by the publicly owned National Freight Corporation
set up under the Act also never developed in the way anticipated. Arguably this was
because of the dominance of road haulage interests in its business but also because
the increase in goods vehicles' dimensions and development of the inter-urban road
network meant that the scope for economic haulage by rail was rapidly diminishing. In
the ten years from 1967 to 1977 the amount of general freight carried by rail actually
halved.
5.4 Post-war town planning: new towns and green belts
After World War II the idea of free-standing 'garden cities' was revived as a way of
catering for the planned 'overspill' of housing requirements from the main cities. An
Act passed in 1946 enabled the Government to designate areas for new towns and to
establish 'New Town Corporations' to undertake the development and to organise the
relocation of businesses and households from major cities. New Towns were created
mainly around London in places such as Stevenage, Harlow, Basildon and Crawley
with target populations of around 50,000 but smaller new towns were also designated
in the vicinity of a few provincial industrial cities.
In many other areas however expansion continued in the form of peripheral
housing estates, with councils often building up to the limits of their administrative
boundaries. Usually further expansion was vehemently resisted by the 'rural' counties
beyond. It was not just the physical effects they were objecting to. There were also
strong underlying social and political motivations. Overspill council housing estates