UGLY BUILDINGS

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 47, 18 November 1933, Page 22

UGLY BUILDINGS

Prevention in Britain

REPORT OF COMMITTEE

‘•The Elevation and Siting of Buildings” is the title of a report on “the best means, legislative or administrative, of protecting the country fr u unsightly building,” made by a joint committee, which sat under the chairmanship of Sir Leslie Scott, representing the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Council for the Preservation of Rural England, the Institute of Builders and the Institution of Municipal and County Engineers. The report. expresses the views of the committee, other than the two representatives of the .Municipal and County Engineers.

The keynote of the report is that, under the Town and Country Planning Act. 1932, statutory powers of amenity control can be obtained practically everywhere throughout the country, if only the local authorities will take the initial step of passing the necessary planning resolution. The report urges that those powers should be exercised in accordance with the following recommendations :— Recommendations Made. I. That all planning authorities should be urged (a) to extend as rapidly and widely as possible the control over building development which may now be obtained under the Act by means of approved planning resolutions followed bv schemes; and (b) to make suitable- provision, to the satisfaction of the Minister of Health, either individually or through a joint committee or by delegation to the county council, for the efficient performance of their function of supervising the siting, design, and external appearance of all buildings. 11. That all authorities exercising control over siting, design, and external appearance offbuildings, should arrange to receive architectural advice.

111. That the panel system affords a satisfactory method for obtaining such advice.

IV. That the right of appeal, in relation to the control of design and external appearance, should lie to a tribunal specially constituted for the purpose under the scheme, rather than to a court of summary jurisdiction. - The report points out that the Act relies upon the willing co-operation of all local authorities in using their statutory powers to carry out the intention of Parliament. It continues: “If our local government authorities really use the powers which Parliament has put at their disposal, unsightly building can, broadly speaking, be prevented. The urgent need is to get the local authorities all over the country to take action, either by themselves passing the planning resolution which ensures preventive protection or by delegating their powers to the county council, or, still better, to joint committees.”

Planning Needs.

The Act,' says the report, imposes on all local authorities a duty to consider the planning needs of their district, and, either individually or jointly with other authorities, to make a scheme for the whole ox - any part of it, wherever uncontrolled development is causing or is likely to cause inefficiency or disfigurement.

The report insists on the importance of the following control check: —Where a local authority has failed to use its planning powers in respect of the whole or a part of its atea, the Minister may, if he is of opinion, after holding a local inquiry, that a scheme ought to have been prepared, himself take executive action to ensure that the omission be made good. He may order the authority to prepare a scheme; and in default of compliance may'himself act in the place and at tlie expense of the authority, or, in rural districts and minor urban districts, entrust such action to the county council. “We regard active stimulation from the centre.” the report continues, “as vital if anything like a rimultaneous and rapid advance is to be achieved over the whole country; without it the slow-moving machine of English local government, with its 1,700 local authorities authorised by the Act to make planning schemes, will frequently I—ll to act soon enough to prevent a grave extension of irreparable damage. The master key to our problem is in the hands of the Minister. “As regards siting, elevations, and materials, the artistic skill and experience of tlie architectural profession ought to be much more widely used. . . . . The common impression that the 'construction of houses, and indeed of most buildings, so as to be pleasing in design and material is more expensive than utrlv building is in general mistaken; indeed, many of the bad buildings recently erected must have cost, more than good buildings of the same size. “The system of voluntary ‘panels ot architects and others willing to advise planning authorities on (he plans submitted to them for approval as regards siting and elevations, instituted by the R.1.8.A. jointly with the C.P.R.E. and 1.8.. and' already in operation in many parts of the country, -is in general working very well where use is being made of it. We strongly support it, and we welcome the unqualified approval extended to it by the present Minister of Health.”