The 1990s paradigm shift - Transport Policy and Planning in Great Britain - page 116

was passed in 1998. However in both cases the necessary Government support was
only obtained by including amendments which effectively required only the case for
road traffic reduction to be investigated, i.e. without any obligation on the scale of
reduction, if any.
The Royal Commission was frustrated at the lack of progress by the Government in
responding to what it saw as a broad consensus about the direction of change needed
in transport policy. Anticipating a forthcoming change in government the Commission
took the unusual step of publishing a report on developments in transport policy since
1994 and of reviewing its original proposals accordingly:
Our concern is that recent action has been too little and too slow to provide the
prospect of a substantial shift in transport trends. This has left a vacuum in which
there is a danger that, if credible alternatives are not being pursued, the pendulum
could swing back to demands for a large road-building programme. That is what
happened in the late 1980s after a period of reduced road building. There is a
need for considerably increased investment in public transport. That is not at
present in prospect, from either public or private sources, on the scale required.
(RCEP 1997 para 1.58)
7.8 The revival of planning
A distinguishing feature of the 1990s was a revival in the importance attached to
public planning. This is evident in two respects. The first was a strengthening of
the mechanisms for development planning (as distinct from the more opportunistic
approaches encouraged during the 1980s). The second was a renewed legitimacy given
to the role of public authorities working in partnership with the private sector (as
distinct from unfettered operation of the commercial market). In both senses many
of the actions of New Labour after 1997 can be seen as further steps along this new
trajectory.
In relation to development planning, steps were taken to reintroduce strategic
direction. 'Guidance notes' issued reluctantly by the Secretary for State for the
Environment to local planning authorities in the metropolitan areas (to fill the void
created by the abolition of the GLC and MCCs) were extended to regions as a whole
and developed on the basis of local 'advice'. A local authority association in the
South-East of England known as SERPLAN was particularly active in maintaining
what amounted to exercises in regional planning at a time when the Government
had effectively declared that such an activity did not and need not exist. The regional
planning guidance notes (RPG) - which dealt with issues specific to a particular region
- were complemented by the new series of national planning policy guidance notes
referred to earlier.
At a local level the structure plans prepared by county councils enjoyed an
unexpected reprieve after 1989. The 1991 Planning and Compensation Act did not
abolish them, but they were expected to wither away as a consequence of a local
government review which was intended to replace the two-tier system of county and
district authorities with a unitary one.
The most important feature of the 1991 Act was the inclusion of a clause which
restored primacy to the development plan in determining planning applications. This
was significant because it strengthened the role of statutory development planning