Conservation, planning and politics: some aspects of the contemporary British scene

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Abstract
The extent of environmental degradation in Britain is largely determined by the aggregative effect of a large number of what are conventionally described as “planning” decisions. But because they serve to allocate the unavoidable societal costs of economic growth, many of these decisions are essentially political in character. Some of the crucial choices are in fact made by developers themselves in both the public and private sectors; in order to restrict the damage inflicted upon amenity as a result of their industrial and other projects, on occasions developers do incur unforced expenditure in excess of what is technically necessary. The effective regulators of resource allocation, however, are Ministers and their advisers, in their adjudicatory role in disputes between developers and the voluntary and statutory guardians of amenity. Ministerial determinations not only settle individual cases; they also condition the thinking and decisions of every other party involved in the planning process. At present, environmental protection is undoubtedly given a higher priority than in the past. But the favourable orientation of decision‐makers towards the claims of amenity may rest upon insecure foundations, for it may reflect not so much a deep‐seated sense of public concern as apprehension on the part of politicians, officials and developers about the possibility of criticism from communications media currently and fashionably preoccupied with conservation and “the environment”.

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