Welsh Journals

Issues and Developments in Planning in Wales Edited by PHILIP COOKE Lecturer in Town Planning, U.W.I.S.T. Cardiff. PROBLEMS OF INDUSTRIAL CHANGE IN WALES: Part Four In this, the last of a four-part series on the problems posed for Wales by the long process of industrial re-structuring that has been taking place as heavy industry declines in importance, we examine the effect of the Welsh Office in assisting the re-planning process. This is an opportune moment to reconsider the nature of the interventions of the Welsh Office since it reminds us of the role Welsh people expected of devolved administration in the 1960's, as well as helping us understand why that role was, after a tentative start, not forth- coming. The point here is that a coherent strategy for development has long been demanded, but such a strategy is the last thing the Welsh Office intends to produce. Of late, of course, demands for 'a plan for Wales' have been renewed with vigour as the Welsh economy has degenerated into a series of outposts of the Industrial and Maritime Museum. But it seems un- likely that such a blueprint will emerge. And, for probably the wrong reasons, the Welsh Office is correct not to fall into the trap of committing itself to a master plan for Wales. If we have learned anything about master-plans in the postwar years it is that they are usually irrelevant. Of far more use are sets of discrete but internally coherent policies which are not fragmented into functional areas such as road plans, land use plans etc., but rather, allow for flexible, re- organisation of space to take advantage of opportunities on a care- fully derived, subregional basis. The alternative of half-hearted centralised planning which raises conflicts rather than seeking polit- ical agreement, and which results in conservative trend-planning, is exposed in its inappropriateness in the accompanying papers.