HC Deb 21 February 1967 vol 741 cc244-6W
Mr. John Fraser

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government what progress has been made towards implementing the Government's decision to establish a centre for environmental studies.

Mr. Greenwood

The Centre for Environmental Studies has now been formally established as an independent charitable trust for the purpose of advancing education and research in the planning and design of the physical environment. I welcome the decision of the Ford Foundation, announced today, to make a grant of $750,000 to the Centre. Subject to Parliamentary approval a Government grant will be made to the Centre and will amount for the first five years to one and a half times the contribution of the Ford Foundation, up to a maximum of £600,000. The Centre will have a governing body of ten, including one international governor appointed in consultation with the Ford Foundation. Two of the governors have yet to be appointed; the following have already accepted appointments:

Chairman

Lord Llewelyn-Davies, Professor of Architecture, University of London.

Vice-Chairman

Sir William Fiske, Leader of the Greater London Council.

International Governor

Mr. Martin Meyerson, President of the State University of New York, Buffalo.

Ordinary Governors

  • Mr. C. D. Foster, Director-General of Economic Planning, Ministry of Transport.
  • Lord Holford, Professor of Town Planning, University of London.
  • Lord Jellicoe, S. G. Warbury & Co.; formerly Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government.
  • Mr. William Taylor, Chairman of the Livingston New Town Development Corporation and Leader of the Glasgow City Council.
  • Professor R. M. Titmuss, Professor of Social Administration, London School of Economics.

Dr. A. H. Chilver, Professor of Civil Engineering in the University of London, has been appointed Director of the Centre, as from 1st April, 1967.

The Centre will immediately begin to assess the needs for research in planning the environment for human living, and to consider how and where this research can most effectively be undertaken. In doing so it is likely to arrange a series of studies and discussions, and to consider the problems of disseminating research findings, and of information generally.

The temporary headquarters of the Centre will be in London. Much of the activity generated by the Centre will be in other centres throughout Britain, particularly in universities. If, in due course, the Centre sponsors the setting up of an information and intelligence unit this would be outside London.