§ Mr. Chichester-Clarkasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what progress he has made in his discussions with those affected to speed up the preparation and approval of structure plans.
§ Mr. Graham PageOfficers of the Department will shortly open discussions with groups of local planning authorities to expedite the preparation of structure plans in accordance with a programme covering considerably more authorities and a much wider area of England than hitherto contemplated. In preparing the programme, I have given preference mainly to areas with major problems of a kind which lend themselves to structure plan treatment and I have also taken account of work on regional strategies and land use transportation studies. The aim of the discussions is to agree the areas which should be covered by the structure plans and to explore the scope and need for collaboration between neighbouring authorities in the production of plans.
107WIn the South-East the discussions will take place as part of the follow-up to the South-East Joint Planning Study when decisions have been reached on the regional strategy in the light of the consultations carried out. The aim will be to turn over to the new system throughout the region as quickly as possible.
In the North-West all those local planning authorities not already carrying out structure plan work will be invited to do so. The preparation of structure plans throughout the region will then go forward concurrently with the regional planning study which is about to start. In the West Midlands a similar invitation has already been issued to all the local planning authorities in the region.
In the other regions, discussions will be opened with the following groups of authorities:
Northern:
Darlington C.B. and Durham and North Riding C.C.s, for the Darlington area.
Durham C.C., for the whole of the county, and Hartlepool C.B.
Carlisle C.B. and Cumberland C.C., for the Carlisle and W. Cumberland area.
Yorkshire and Humberside:
Bradford, Dewsbury, Halifax, Huddersfield, Leeds and Wakefield C.B.s and West Riding C.C., for the West Yorkshire conurbation area.
Lindsey C.C., for the South Lindsey area.
South-West:
Wiltshire C.C., for the whole of the county. Bath and Bristol C.B.s and Gloucestershire and Somerset C.C.s, for the Bath/Bristol area.
Gloucester C.B. and Gloucestershire C.C., for the North Gloucestershire area.
Bournemouth C.B. and Dorset and Hampshire C.Cs., for the Bournemouth/Poole area.
East Midlands:
Derby C.B., Nottingham C.B., Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire C.Cs., for the whole of their area.
Northampton C.B. and Northamptonshire C.C.
108WEast Anglia:
Ipswich C.B. and East Suffolk C.C., for the Ipswich area.
To date, 47 local planning authorities in England had been invited to start preparatory work on structure plans for the whole or, in the case of certain county councils, part of their area. The present statement relates to the additional authorities or areas now to be brought into the structure plan programme. Authorities responsible for over three-quarters of the area of England will thus now be involved in discussions and work on structure plan preparation. It remains open to other authorities to discuss with the Department their case for embarking on such work at an early date.
This acceleration of the structure plan programme should do much to help the authorities concerned to avoid seeking consent to make new development plan submissions under the 1962 Act.