MIDLANDS WILL BE PLANNED
"TOO MUCH CHAOS" BIG SCHEME PROPOSED i Mr Silkin, Minister oi' Town and Country Planning, has given Sir Patrick Abercrombie the task of planning 2000 square miles in Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire. It is the Minister's reply to the revolt of the "little towns" of the Black Country against Birmingham's proposals to turn the city into a London of the Midlands. Birmingham will come into the scheme. The plan is the biggest in the country except that for the Greater London area. It will take Sir Patrick at least 18 months and will then have to be considered by all the local authorities in the area. The cost will be borne by the Exchequer. Mr Silkin, after a long conference with the planning committees in the Midlands said: "There has been too much chaos in planning around Birmingham and we must straighten it out." He had listened to heated objections by delegates from smaller places on the outskirts of Birmingham to the city's "green belt" proposals which, they said, would mean their absorption in one big "octopus" authority.
Mr Silkin said he was particularly concerned with preserving "community'' interests in the Midlands and was not in favour of a large authority under which small localities would lose their identities.
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Bibliographic details
Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXV, Issue 14184, 8 October 1946, Page 4
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213MIDLANDS WILL BE PLANNED Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXV, Issue 14184, 8 October 1946, Page 4
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