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Towards A London Plan
The Greater London Authority' s draft Spacial
Development Strategy, which it understandably prefers to call
The London Plan, is the third of a series of strategies published
during the Mayor' s first year in office and is to be followed
by eight more next year. The Croydon Society' s comments on the
draft Transport Strategy appear elsewhere in this issue of Focus.
We "passed" on the Economic and Development Strategy,
but must not ignore this latest document. The London Plan, when
approved, will replace the current Strategic Planning Guidance
for London issued by the Secretary of State, which since 1986
has imperfectly filled the gap left by the abolition of the GLC.
All the London Boroughs' Unitary Development Plans will then
have to conform to it, though surely a new name will then be
needed for these local plans, which will no longer be in any
sense unitary.
London' s Strategic Choice
The GLA frankly admits that what it proposes
in its draft Plan is a complete reversal of the policies which
have inspired land use planning in Greater London since the Second
World War. These policies, originally advocated by Ebenezer Howard
and his Garden City movement at the start of the last century,
sought to check London' s growth, to establish new settlements
beyond the Green Belt (originally as planned New Towns but more
recently as piecemeal speculative developments) and then to redevelop
comprehensively and at more humane densities the crowded inner
city districts. The Lansbury Neighbourhood in the 1951 Festival
of Britain was their exemplar.
The GLA now rejects this approach. In an era
of globalisation, it sees London as one of only three genuine
world cities, the others being New York and Tokyo, whose continued
prosperity depends upon sustainable growth. This means an expanding
economy and a growing population, an increased provision of housing,
especially affordable housing, and a modernised transport infrastructure
based as far as possible on public transport.
Development Principles
The GLA sees the greatest potential for economic
growth in East London (The Thames Gateway), with other radial
corridors for development identified as the Lee Valley, the Western
Edge (out to Heathrow and beyond) and the Wandle Valley, including
Croydon and extending southward to Crawley and Gatwick. Little
detail is given of what is intended for Croydon, but the Mayor
has recently contrasted the "dynamic" Croydon of his
childhood with a town that "now looks quite run-down and
in need of regeneration."
The Plan has many other, mostly admirable,
objectives, such as promoting a green city, improving the public
realm and supporting disadvantaged groups, but the main policy
thrusts seem designed to respond to the imperatives of a competitive
global economy.
Our Response
What should the London amenity movement' s
response be to this document? It is based on what has now become
the conventional economic wisdom of all the main parties and
is likely to be the only strategy on offer. It will be welcomed
by the New Labour/Lib Dem/Green coalition that now runs London
as more collectivist than anything envisaged since the post-war
Labour Governments, but it can hardly be called Green in any
principled sense. It gives public transport priority over the
private car but does little to reduce the need to travel.
Its vision of high-density living in clusters of towers above
railway stations does not take into account the destruction of
cherished historic views which this would entail. The famous
view of Westminster and Whitehall from Telegraph Hill, for example,
would be one casualty if a proposed development at the Elephant
and Castle went ahead. Other schemes could have severe effects
on the Royal Parks. Listed buildings and Conservation Areas feature
in only one short paragraph of the Plan headed "London City
of Culture" and seem to be valued mainly for their tourist
potential.
The Next Step
Amenity societies all over London are only
now starting to react to this Plan as Focus goes to press. This
article is a very personal and perhaps too sceptical response.
Others may feel able to reach a more positive verdict. The London
Forum, representing over 100, 000 of us, will then try to achieve
a consensus on the Plan. We hope the Mayor and his colleagues
will give its views the attention they deserves.
George Parish
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