National planning - Transport Policy and Planning in Great Britain - page 273

17 National planning
17.1 Introduction
'Planning' and 'plans' are terms used in a variety of settings, including everyday speech,
and can have rather different meanings. The reader's own interpretation is likely to be
influenced by whether they have had experience of planning as a professional activity
and, if so, which part of it. We therefore begin with a discussion of these terms and
their role in governance (17.2).
In relation to transport and spatial planning we are particularly concerned with
the way that generalised aspirations are translated into physical outcomes 'on the
ground' in particular places. This involves a broadly hierarchical sequence of planning
processes at national, regional and local levels. We explain the general character of
this in section 17.3.
Overall responsibility for these processes in relation to inland surface transport is
currently divided between the UK Government (but in this case concerned only with
England) and the devolved administrations of Scotland and Wales. We explain what is
meant by 'national planning' in this context in section 17.4 and describe the processes
associated with it separately for each country in sections 17.5 to 17.7.
These national processes set the 'terms of reference' within which much of the
executive activity in transport and spatial planning is carried out by sub-national (i.e.
regional and local) bodies. In the final section we provide an overview of these sub-
national planning arrangements (17.8) which acts as an introduction to the more
detailed chapters which follow.
17.2 The nature of planning
National governments have ultimate responsibility for transport and travel conditions,
but as we have seen, many of the instruments for influencing these lie with local
authorities and other public agencies. Any government therefore has close interest in
the effectiveness of what these other bodies are doing (relative to its own objectives)
and - since it is the main paymaster - the efficiency with which they are doing it. But
why should this translate into a requirement to prepare plans ? For professionals already
working in a planning environment the reasons may seem obvious but it is not so for
the rest of the human race (witness the bafflement encountered in social situations
when people ask what you do and you say you are a planner!).
Planning generally may be defined as an intelligence-generating activity aimed at
improving the quality of decision-making. In essence it involves estimating the future