TOWN AND COUNTRY PLANNING ACT, 1947
| Published date | 01 January 1948 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1948.tb00073.x |
| Date | 01 January 1948 |
S
T
A
'I'
U
1'
E
S
TOWN
AND
COUNTRY
PLANNING
ACT,
1947
Tira
Town and Country Planning Act,
1047,
has been called
a
skeleton Act; but
it
is
a
singularly robust-looking skeleton. Its
120
ample sections and eleven formidable schedules dwarf the more
modest New Towns Act, its companion in the new planning code.
Nevertheless,
so
extensive are the powers of delegated legislation
conferred by the Act that it may be some years before its full
implications become clear.
Before the war only
a
small proportion of local authorities had
planning schemes in actual operation. Whilst this was due partly
to the phenomenal prolixity
of
the procedure necessary for putting
any local scheme into operation under the
1982
Act, there were also
more serious obstacles. The bogey
of
compensation frightened
many authorities into adopting
a
timid approach towards planning.
They
also
tended
to
think in parochial terms; in the words of the
Explanatory Memorandum
to
the
1047
Bill,
'
the tendency was
for
each authority to plan thcir arca in isolation from their neighbours
'.
Nor
were they obliged
to
prepare any scheme whatever
;
and
if
they
did take positive action,. their powers were insufficient to ensure
satisfactory development,
as
distinct from preventing bad develop-
ment. Further, the system was fundamentally rigid; once a
planning scheme obtained the force of law, the procedure for amend-
ment was too complicated.
In recent years the idea .that physical planning should
be
conceived
as
a
national, rather than
a
local, responsibility, has
gained ground. The establishment
of
a
Ministry
of
Town
and
Country Planning in
1043
was
followed in the same year and in
1944
by statutes which brought this goal nearer to fulfilment. But the
main weaknesses persisted. The
1947
Act seeks to cure them by
solving the financial problems of local authorities and ht the same
time erecting
a
new structure of planning machinery to ensure that
planning
will
be ccntrally co-ordinated and
also
effectively executed.
It
owes much to the Uthwatt Committee's Report, although most
of the Committee's recommendations have beer. substantially
mod ificd
.
The essentials
of
the new scheme introduced by the Act ore
:
The present system
of
interim development control is to be modi-
fied and extended to
all
stages of planning,
so
that no development
of
land may
in
future take place without permission
;
no compcnsa-
tion
will
normally be paid for refusal
of
permission; where
1
Cmd.
7004/1947,
11.
4.
72
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