Welsh Journals

The Sonth Wales Regional Survey 1921: A Reassessment after Sixty Years. P.N.JONES. Department of Geography, University of Hull. (Received October 1980: in revised form February 1981) Abstract 1981 marks the sixtieth anniversary of the publication of a remark- able planning study for industrial South Wales, the Report of the South Wales Regional Survey Committee chaired by Sir William Seager (M.O.H., 1921). 1 In view of the repeated criticisms (Ty Toronto, 1977; Alden, 1977) that South Wales, particularly the Coal- field section, has lacked a coordinated regional planning strategy in the post-1945 period it is pertinent at a time of renewed economic stress to examine this pioneer document. Introduction The South Wales Regional Survey Committee was constituted by the Minister of Health in February 1920, and took oral and written evidence between April and June of that year. Its terms of reference were to "enquire into and report upon the special circumstances affecting the distribution and location of the houses to be erected with State aid in the region of the coalfields of South Wales, and to make recommendations for the region, regard being had:- a. to the health and convenience of the industrial population b. to the physical conditions of the region c. to the present and probable future development of the region d. to the existing and necessary transit facilities e. to economy in the provision of water supply, sewerage, and other services". Two notable members of the ten-man Committee were Professor Patrick Abercrombie, University of Liverpool, and Mr. T.Alwyn Lloyd, who was then Architect to the Welsh Town Planning and Housing Trust. The seventeen chapter Report was published in 1921. The primary function of the Report was clearly the establishment of a coalfield-wide strategy concerning the location of such housing, although this consideration was correctly identified as inseparable from the wider town planning issues surrounding the establishment of successful new communities. In this respect the Report shows an acute awareness of the labour unrest and social discontent which had been prevalent in the years leading up to the First World War,