History of Planning

This second post on the history of planning in the Scottish Borders looks at the progress made by the four Scottish Border County Councils in establishing a planning system for the area.  The Town and Country Planning (Interim Development) (Scotland) Act 1943 extended the control of development beyond those areas which were the subject of a planning scheme to cover the whole of a local authority’s area.  As a consequence, Planning Committees were set up by Selkirk, Roxburgh and Berwickshire County Councils in 1944 [the first meeting of Selkirk County Council’s Planning Committee was held on Thursday 28 October 1943 but it was at the second meeting on 18 January 1944 that it appointed its first Chairman, Major Scott Plummer, and conducted its first business].  It would be 1948 before Peeblesshire County Council established its Planning Committee.

The first task for the new committees was to initiate surveys of their area (of the use of land, the use and condition of buildings, the provision of services such as water and drainage, gas and electricity, school provision and bus routes) and establish systems for dealing with planning applications submitted under the Interim Development powers conferred by the 1943 Act.  In the first instance, Planning Committees were advised by the County Clerk, assisted by the County Surveyor or County Architect, but private architect firms would soon be employed to carry out the initial surveys of their areas and provide advice on planning applications.  Selkirk County Council employed John C Hall, Architect of Galashiels, to undertake the initial survey of the county.  John C Hall, and subsequently his son John B. Hall, trading as J & J Hall, Architects of Galashiels, would become County Planning Officer for Selkirk County Council.  Roxburgh and Berwickshire County Councils would follow the same practice of employing local architects.  There were only eighteen qualified town planners working in Scotland in 1950, most of whom were in the Department of Health for Scotland.  Frank Tindall, appointed County Planning Officer of neighbouring East Lothian County Council in 1950, would be one of the first County Planning Officers in Scotland, but it would be the 1960s before Roxburgh and Berwickshire County Councils appointed County Planning Officers and Peeblesshire County Council would be advised by the County Planning Officer of Midlothian County Council.

As explained in the first post on the history of planning in the Scottish Borders, the recommendations contained in the Barlow, Scott and Uthwatt reports produced during the Second World War indicated that a complete overhaul of the planning system was required to allow reconstruction after the war.  The Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1947 heralded a new era of planned society and introduced a universal requirement to obtain planning consent for any development.  The Act gave wide ranging planning powers to the four county councils in the Scottish Borders: as well as the power to approve or refuse development proposals, they must prepare development plans; they could also carry out redevelopment themselves and they could use compulsory purchase powers to buy land and make it available for development by developers.  They were also given powers to control outdoor advertisements, preserve woodland and buildings of architectural or historic interest.

County development plans for the four counties in the Scottish Borders were approved by the Secretary of State for Scotland between 1955 and 1965.  The Selkirkshire County Development Plan, one of the first in Scotland, was approved in April 1955 (having been submitted to the Scottish Office in March 1953); the Peeblesshire County Development Plan quickly followed (submitted in June 1953 and approved in December 1955).  County development plans for Berwickshire and Roxburghshire would not be approved until February 1965 (the Berwickshire County Development Plan was submitted in December 1960, the Roxburghshire County Development Plan in December 1961).  These Plans would be updated by review and amendment during the 1960s; a Quinquennial Review of the Selkirkshire County Development Plan would be approved in January 1968 (submitted in May 1964) and a number of amendments would be made to the Roxburghshire County Development Plan, principally in relation to development in the burghs of Hawick, Jedburgh and Kelso.

These county development plans were prepared against the background of a declining population, particularly in the rural areas, and a shortage of labour in the predominant industries of the main towns, the Tweed and Hosiery industries.  The four development plans sought to stabilise the population overall and increase the population of the main towns through the allocation of land for housing.  In their original form, the development plans allocated land that would allow for a combined population of 106,000, compared with a 1951 population of 107,575.

The next posts will look in more detail at how the four county councils saw their areas developing during this crucial period of change.

 

This is the first in a series of posts, which will eventually form the basis of a book on the history of town and country planning in the Scottish Borders.  The origins of town and country planning in Britain lie in the dramatic changes in nineteenth-century society caused by the industrial revolution with an influx of people from the countryside into the towns.  Houses and factories were constructed cheek by jowl; there was no control over standards of construction and little or no regard for proper ventilation and sanitation.  Model villages, built by industrial philanthropists, such as New Lanark, the brainchild of David Dale and his son-in-law Robert Owen, showed how workers could be housed in healthy surroundings.  The Public Health (Scotland) Act 1897 gave local authorities powers to secure proper standards of drainage and sewage and regulate the width of streets, space between houses and size of rooms.  However, these powers did not deal with more general land-use problems, such as the proximity of housing and heavy industry.

Until the passing of The Housing, Town Planning, etc. Act, 1909, which applied to Scotland, local authorities did not possess any right or power to control or regulate the development of the towns and districts under their jurisdiction.  The 1909 Act was the first enactment in Great Britain to deal with the subject of town planning.  Under the 1909 Act, local authorities could make town planning schemes for defined areas which were in the course of development or which appeared likely to be used for building purposes.  The Housing, Town Planning, etc. (Scotland) Act, 1919 introduced compulsory town planning schemes for every burgh with a population of 20,000 or more.  However, the largest town in the Scottish Borders, Hawick, had a population of only 16,900 and so this Act had no effect here.  The Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1932 extended the scope for planning action by enabling all local authorities to make planning schemes for almost any land.  However, planning schemes were very inflexible and the prospect of having to pay heavy compensation to those who sustained financial loss in consequence of such a scheme deterred many authorities from making planning schemes.  No action was taken in the Scottish Borders under this Act.

In the 1930s, major land use problems began to emerge nationally; urban sprawl and ribbon development attracting most attention.  A series of Royal Commissions set up during the Second World War looked into specific problems relating to the control of development in anticipation of the need to rebuild the country after hostilities had ceased.  The Barlow Report (1940) recommended the decentralisation of population and industry.  It led to the establishment of new towns such as East Kilbride and Glenrothes in Scotland.  The Scott Report (1941) called for local planning to become compulsory and the approval of the local authority to be required for new development.  The Uthwatt Report (1942) recommended that all land should be brought within development control to prevent development prejudicial to post-war reconstruction plans.

The Town and Country Planning Act 1947 and the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1947 sought to give effect to the recommendations contained in the Barlow, Scott and Uthwatt reports.  These Acts were the foundations of the modern town and country planning system.  Under the 1947 Acts, planning permission was required for the development of land and local authorities were given wide ranging powers: as well as approving planning proposals, they must prepare development plans; they could also carry out redevelopment themselves and they could use compulsory purchase powers to buy land and make it available for development by developers.  They were also given powers to control outdoor advertisements, preserve woodland and buildings of architectural or historic interest.

In Scotland, Patrick Geddes (1854-1932), biologist, sociologist, geographer, philanthropist and pioneering town planner, advocated a regional approach to planning that took account of the complex relationships between people and their environment.  This approach bore fruit in 1943 when the wartime Secretary of State for Scotland, Tom Johnston, asked Sir Frank Mears, architect and planning consultant, Patrick Geddes’ son-in-law, to prepare a regional plan for central and south-east Scotland, which included the Scottish Borders.  His Regional Survey and Plan for Central and South-East Scotland was published in 1946.  It was one of three major regional plans for Scotland’s post-war reconstruction; the others were the Clyde Valley Regional Plan 1946 by Sir Patrick Abercrombie and Robert Matthew and the Tay Valley Plan 1950 by Robert Lyle and Gordon Payne.

Sir Frank Mears’ report recommends some far-reaching proposals for the future development of central and south-east Scotland, including a new Forth Road Crossing and by-pass for Edinburgh and a new town in Fife (Glenrothes).  The report provides a comprehensive assessment of the population, economy and land use of the Scottish Borders and sets out proposals for the future planning and economic development of the area.  At the time, there was a shortage of labour in the Tweed industry and the report warned that the progress of existing industries and any prospect of introducing new small-scale industries was handicapped by lack of housing.  The decline in population experienced since 1871, particularly the decline in the younger age groups, would accelerate unless housing was provided on a generous scale.  In order to co-ordinate future action, the report recommended the establishment of a joint committee of local authorities based in a new regional hub at St. Boswells/Newtown St. Boswells where offices, a new hospital, an agricultural college, student accommodation and housing would be developed.  Industrial development would be concentrated in the existing burghs but the Charlesfield munitions site outside St. Boswells could be developed as an assembly plant for the hundreds of pre-fabricated houses required after the war.  In Berwickshire, where rural depopulation was particularly severe, a development commission would be established to encourage rural industries; at Eyemouth, a new harbour would be constructed to provide improved facilities for the fishing industry.  The report also draws attention to the inadequacy of east-west road communications through the Tweed Basin (a recurring theme in subsequent development plans), and suggests a major new road link between Berwickshire and Lanarkshire utilising improved existing roads but also including by-passes for St. Boswells/Newtown St. Boswells, Melrose and Galashiels in the central borders and Walkerburn and Innerleithen in Peeblesshire..

The Mears report would pave the way for the preparation of the first county development plans by Berwickshire, Peeblesshire, Roxburghshire and Selkirkshire County Councils.  However, in many respects, the Mears Report was too radical, some might say too academic, in its approach to the future development of the region and did not take due account of the historic pattern of development and local politics.  Consequently, few of its recommendations would find their way into the new County Development Plans.  In the second post on the history of town and country planning in the Scottish Borders, we shall see how the local authorities envisaged the region developing in the subsequent years.