Public Records (Commission for the New Towns) (Hansard, 27 March 1984)

§ Mr. Christopher Murphy (Welwyn Hatfield)

I rise briefly to support this order, because I believe it to be both right and desirable that new town records should be placed in the public domain. Clearly such documents have intrinsic value for research into the growth of the new towns themselves, and their social and economic impact on the surrounding areas provides insight into town planning methods and traces the evolution of post-war approaches to such urban problems as congestion and overcrowding.

The new towns movement has ever been the source of controversy. For some, they remain the idealism to achieve social planning; for others, they have become the reality for a better life style.

My constituency has two such new towns, Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield, and the release of these records will do much to show the successes or otherwise of these examples of the new town concept. Indeed, my constituents in a number of cases came from the very opposite environment, that of urban decay in areas such as the east end of London, and in Bethnal Green and Bow in the two 1974 general elections I had the opportunity to meet many of them before seeing them again in Hertfordshire.

The purpose of Hatfield was to serve the nearby aircraft industry, diversifying employment and taking "overspill" from London. The purpose of Welwyn Garden City was also to provide such overspill facilities, but this time it was attached to the existing private enterprise creation of Ebenezer Howard. Both have been brought together under one local government authority, as have the surrounding villages and countryside, to provide a mixed urban and rural community in mid-Hertfordshire.

By invoking the Public Records, Act with regard to these documents, many of the aspects of these two new towns will be permitted fresh analysis. Such information will do much to ensure that future developments can learn from the lessons of the past.

There can be little doubt that new towns such as Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield have given a far better quality of life to many families, albeit at the expense of the countryside and to the detriment of inner cities. However, the overriding concerns must be for the welfare and benefit of those people who have come to live in the district. The records will help to explain the imbalance in facilities for differing age groups—an emphasis on the young and their education, and a neglect for the ageing population. Now there are the agonies of adjusting the provision of schools to falling rolls and the difficulties of finding sufficient accommodation for the elderly sick.

262 The records will help to explain the imbalance in the housing stock between rented and private accommodation and in terms of commercial buildings and shops. Now the right to buy is a welcome step in overcoming the serious shortage of homes to purchase, as is the sale of commission assets to increase local ownership and generate redevelopment.

The records will help to explain the imbalance in travel opportunities for commuters and local workers alike. Now the need to improve the A l(M), to provide the train system to and from London with better services and station accommodation, and to restructure the bus timetable have all become necessities but with the seemingly inevitable accompanying difficulties.

The records will also point to the attraction of new technology industries, of pharmaceutical companies, and spin-off enterprise from aerospace, providing increased and enhanced employment opportunities. The records will also point to good leisure facilities and an appreciation of the importance of the green belt. They will also point to a recognition of the need for modern health service and further education centres, of churches and the preservation of the good buildings of the past.

As Frank Schaffer said in his book "The New Town Story", of which I am sure hon. Gentlemen here gathered are well aware: A new town does not exist in a vacuum. It can be studied as an individual project, it can be pronounced a success or failure according to a critic's view of the planning, design, rate of building or social content. But in the national context the achievement of the new towns must be judged by the collective contribution they have made to the problems of overcrowding, the progress they have brought in the science of 'building for living', and the lessons they point for the future. That judgment can be the more accurately made if the Commission for the New Towns documents are made public, as the order envisages, and that judgment will be the more significant in its value, as the many hon. Members assembled here tonight clearly recognise, with the increasing realisation that our old towns must be the new towns of the future.