A new deal for transport? - Transport Policy and Planning in Great Britain - page 121

disillusionment. A panel of independent experts led by Professor Phil Goodwin (leader
of the New Realism project) advised on the content of the new programme. However
the final version was doctored by the Policy Unit established in the Prime Minister's
own office, forever mindful of how it would be received by the popular press. Such
changes were commonplace in the ruthless central political control imposed by the
new administration:
Departmental officials observed that the changes No 10 so systematically made
or incited were not concerned with truth and objectivity, but with political
saleability.
(Foster 2005 p. 186)
The White Paper was long on aspiration but short on practical detail (Mackie
1998). The rather glossy 'coffee table' format in which it was published and its gushing
ad-man's prose heightened the sense that this was more an exercise in 'spin' than
a thorough analysis of the situation being confronted. Given the magnitude of the
aspiration - to reverse decades of increasing car dependence - the Government was
risking riding for a fall. Unfortunately, so it proved.
8.3 The content of the 1998 White Paper
For its starting point the White Paper reiterated the dilemma encapsulated in
the Traffic in Towns report 35 years previously - that the growth in transport in
general, and car use in particular, has transformed our lives but at enormous cost -
in congestion, pollution, road casualties and CO 2 emissions. It acknowledged the
'enormous challenge' presented in delivering a transport system which supported
sustainable development and which contributed to people's quality of life rather than
detracted from it. In the Government's view the way to achieving this was through an
'integrated transport policy'. By this it meant:
• integration within and between different types of transport - so that each
contributes its full potential and people can move easily between them
• integration with the environment - so that transport choices support a better
environment
• integration with land use planning - so that transport and planning work
together to support more sustainable choices and reduce the need to travel
• integration with policies for education, health and wealth creation so that
transport helps to make a fairer, more inclusive society.
(DETR 1998a para 1.22)
Concern for the social dimension of public policy was a notable feature of the
new administration and was reflected in the creation of cross-departmental Social
Exclusion Unit.
The Government also asserted the need for a 'new approach' in achieving change
by bringing together public and private sectors in partnership - with incentives to
companies to provide new services and raise standards, whilst ensuring cost-effective
use of public expenditure and ensuring that services are properly regulated in the public
interest. This more pragmatic and 'managerial' view contrasted with the continuing
support of many Labour Party members for public ownership and control (for example