The motorway age (1955–79) - Transport Policy and Planning in Great Britain - page 86

evidence from a wide range of bodies pointed to a consensus on the need for a decisive
shift in policy. The Committee challenged the then dominance in local authority
programmes of major highway schemes:
Firstly there should be a major and substantial effort to improve public transport
… secondly, the use of private cars for the journey to work should be severely
discouraged in areas where it impedes public transport.
(House of Commons 1973 paras 26-28)
The report had significance at a local level in giving 'both credence and, at last, a
measure of authority to the more articulate and well-considered opposition challenging
local plans for urban motorways' (Starkie 1982 p. 88) . Nationally it influenced
government policy in developing a new system for local authority transport funding in
place of previous arrangements whereby different types of expenditure received different
levels of grant. From 1974 these were replaced by a single block grant referred to as a
Transport Supplementary Grant (TSG). This covered a proportion of all expenditure
on items accepted by the Government from within a local authority's programme
submitted annually in a TPP (Transport Policies and Programme) document.
The legislative changes of the 1968-74 period had the effect of revolutionising
the arrangements for land use and transport planning in the conurbations. New
Metropolitan County Councils established in 1974 (and the Strathclyde Regional
Council in Scotland) became the highway and traffic authority for their area, the
strategic planning authority and the Passenger Transport Authority. They therefore
had both functional responsibilities and geographical jurisdiction fit for the integrated
approach which was seen to be needed. The GLC had a similar role. In principle at
least, these authorities had the discretion to adopt a transport strategy involving any
mix of capital investment and operating subsidies and any combination of modes, and
would not stand to gain or lose government grants as a consequence.
5.7 'Homes before Roads' - the demise of urban motorways
During the 1960s the public mood had been characterised by optimism. Growing
ownership and provision for cars was a very powerful symbol of new-found private
prosperity. Urban renewal was also being tackled boldly with demands for new office
accommodation increasingly the catalyst for development in central areas. Partnerships
between local authorities and private developers were becoming the norm - the latter
financed by the swelling coffers of private pension funds. Town planning generally and
highway building in particular were approached with a long-term focus and degree of
(over)confidence that would be unrecognisable to us today (Tetlow and Goss 1965).
In the late 1960s and early 1970s the climate of opinion surrounding urban
planning began to change quite rapidly. However because of the lead time involved
in major development schemes, action on the ground continued to reflect previous
thinking. Housing redevelopment involving the bulldozing of large areas and the
replacement of traditional streets by blocks of high-rise council flats and ill-cared-for
public spaces became rapidly unfashionable. So too did many town centre schemes
involving wind-swept precincts, multi-storey car parks and inconvenient 'walkways',
their unfriendliness aggravated by brutal modernist designs and materials.
Both housing and town centre schemes typically involved major alterations in
the road system and the building of new highways on a much larger scale. These