The Seven Towns
Plymouth stands out as the case of a town which, having suffered severe war damage, has prepared a fine and inspiring plan for post- war reconstruction. It wants to pull down ruins and clear obso- lescent sites, and in the process of reconstruction build not only on the cleared sites, but also find room for its citizens in dwellings outside its municipal borders. The case of Plymouth has its counter- parts in Portsmouth, Hull, Bristol, Dover, Great Yarmouth and Sunderland, and other towns are likely to be added to the list. But how is this " overspill " building to be effected? Without the rate- able values created the towns would be deprived of the financial means for carrying out this plan. Are the splendid Plymouth plan and the other plans to be held up for years till the whole problem of local authority areas has been attacked and solved? That is unthinkable. Are the towns then to be condemned to inferior plans, building once again to an intolerable density? This surely cannot be allowed. Yet the choice will lie between one or other of these dismal alternatives unless, as Lord Justice Scott urges in a letter to The Times, the matter is dealt with at once in the Town and Country Planning Bill now in Committee of the House of Commons. Mr. Molson and Mr. Storey offer the most obvious remedy for dealing with the case of the seven towns in amendments which would give an extension of their local government areas. Mr. W. S. Morrison must face this issue. He must either accept the essence of these amendments or offer an effective alternative which will ensure that Plymouth and other war-damaged towns are enabled to proceed with their plans. The Minister has not shown himself very ieceptive to attempts to improve this Bill in the interests of planning—the rejection of Mr. Silkin's amendment on Tuesday for 'widening the definition of land subject to compulsory purchase is a
• case in point. But the question of the seven towns is crucial. To fail to deal with this would be to abandon all hope of replanning bombed towns efficiently. •
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