The motorway age (1955–79) - Transport Policy and Planning in Great Britain - page 91

practice in the early 1970s - fell back to earth with a bump almost before it had got
off the ground.
Uncertainty surrounding the future price and availability of oil also prompted the
Government to acknowledge that energy conservation should be a 'major national
objective'. However it refuted the idea that conservation should be an 'over-riding
objective, justifying sharp and profound changes throughout our way of life'. The
Government expected a move towards more efficient engines as fuel prices rose - a
'natural' market response. Taxation was referred to as 'a valuable ally in promoting
economy in the use of energy', but here, where the Government could actually make
a positive contribution, no action was forthcoming.
Much the same was true in the area of land use planning and the promotion of non-
motorised modes. The issues were recognised but no significant action taken:
In the past, plans have often assumed an increasing supply of relatively cheap
transport. Housing and employment have become increasingly separated. Larger
hospitals, schools, offices and shops to serve wider areas have meant longer and
often more difficult journeys…
For the future … we should aim to decrease our absolute dependence on
transport and the length and number of some of our journeys; and to plan more
consciously for those who walk as well as those who use mechanised transport…
(ibid. paras 34-35)
For the first time, walking and cycling were identified as modes which might merit
positive development. However the Department of Transport had very little direct
experience of these subjects and in the 1977 White Paper they merited just three
paragraphs (DTp 1977).
In relation to both transport and land use planning these new policy directions were
perhaps too novel to find ready acceptance. As the threat of rising oil prices receded
so the issue of energy conservation fell back down the policy agenda. In any case the
whole thrust of the Labour Government's programme in the late 1970s became bogged
down with trying to impose anti-inflation wage restraint on public sector industries
whose unions represented the bed-rock of its political support. The 1979 'winter of
discontent' was dominated by a succession of highly controversial strikes in these
industries and ushered in the surprise election of a Conservative Government led by
Margaret Thatcher. For the next 15 years transport policy took on a radically different
tack.