may easily cause serious friction, if not applied with skill and judgment. Possibly, in response to the present wave of public opinion now aroused against the so-called disfigurement of rural England, more powers of this kind may be given to local authorities. The extent, however, to which it may be possible to give such power in the future would no doubt depend, partly on the extent to which public opinion is ripe, and partly on the qualification of the authorities by whom such powers are desired. Joint committees can help to create the right atmosphere for future progress. They can also assist in evolving practical proposals for the æsthetic control of building development, e.g., schemes for placing at the disposal of their constituent authority the skilled advice which many of them cannot independently afford. Too much importance should not, indeed, be attached to additional compulsory powers. A very great deal can even now be done by persuasion and discreet publicity, especially where there is a strong local feeling in favour of the preservation of all amenities. The withdrawal of the threat to establish Covent Garden Market in Bloomsbury is a case in point.

Although these Regional Committees can carry out most valuable work, their limitations as well as their merits must be realised. To the credit side must be placed the advantage of local knowledge being pooled, for on these committees sit the representatives of several local authorities, and the members possess exceptional local knowledge with a long record of public service and experience behind them. Even by meeting together for discussion much is gained, as the members go away with a somewhat wider view of the problems facing their own localities. But it should not be overlooked that these committees are advisory only. No doubt in many cases their advice will be accepted by the constituent authorities. But if, as may happen in time to come, there should be a demand to grant these regional committees executive power so that they may brush aside obstacles put forward by parochial-minded and reactionary councils, then the strength, which is also the weakness, of democratic local government will be apparent.

For it must be remembered that these regional committees are composed of representatives of town planning authorities. They, therefore, are only concerned with new roads, open spaces, and the general direction of future development. Joint bodies,

if representative of local authorities, could be established for the * administration of town planning schemes, but could hardly be * given power over the existing services, and the direction of the future growth of transport, drainage, sewage disposal, watersupplies, and the like. Various statutory powers for the establishment of joint bodies with executive authority exist apart from the Town Planning Act, but any wholesale transfer of power to joint bodies in this way, even if it were possible, would obviously have a serious effect on the existing authorities, and raise grave questions of local government organisation. While, therefore, recognising to the full the immense value of the work of those committees that have been formed up to the present time, we must not exaggerate their power, or believe that, because they have been formed, all will be well. Only by an educated public opinion, ever on the watch, can the future of Great Britain's development be reasonably secured.

The most practical line of approach to the problem of preserving beauty spots is probably by "sterilising" certain areas of land: that is, by retaining them as open spaces to be unbuilt upon, not necessarily for public acquisition and use, which may not always be generally necessary or appropriate, but as land confined to agricultural or similar use, not involving building development in the ordinary sense. Existing legislation enables this to be done, but compensation has to be paid for all land thus reserved from building development, when the land has a building value. It would be clearly unfair and unjust, and contrary to our present ideas about the rights of property, if a man could have valuable building land restricted against building without compensation, because it stood in a beautiful district. As soon as the preservation of any particular piece of land is in question, the difficulty of raising the necessary funds becomes apparent. The case of Kenwood on the northern heights of London is a recent example of this point. Landowners, contrary to the highly-coloured pictures of their iniquities, are not generally unreasonable on these questions. Where they are approached in a reasonable manner, they have frequently acted generously in connection with town planning schemes, and there is no necessity to assume that they would not give a favourable reception to wellconsidered and reasonable proposals for protecting land from indiscriminate and sprawling development.

But all this takes time and patience, the critic may urge. In all questions of the preservation of rural amenities and future development, it must be remembered that we are a country with old roots, and these cannot be disturbed by hasty and ill-considered actions, without the future evils being worse than the present ones. The problem of "ribbon development," for example, will not be solved by impulsive legislation, but needs careful thought and tactful handling by the local authorities and other bodies interested. Nevertheless it is obvious that the present local government bodies with their anomalous boundaries, cannot alone solve the many problems of future growth, and in consequence the formation of regional advisory committees, as described above, has become imperative. An easy next step would appear to be the creation of regional authorities with executive powers to deal with schemes of development, including new buildings, regional planning, regional roads, main drainage, water supply, and transport regulations.

The creation of new authorities with such far-reaching powers would involve a very serious change in our system of local government that has grown up during the centuries. Building development is at present controlled by the borough urban and rural district councils, and it would mean endless friction and overlapping as well as waste of money and time, to leave the local authorities, as they are constituted at present, to exercise a dual control side by side with the new regional body. Existing powers might have to be curtailed and reorganized. To find a method of distributing powers which would secure efficiency without introducing confusion would be a matter of the utmost difficulty. While it is clear that the fewer the number of authorities having independent powers of spending public money, the more economical and better distributed between the services the expenditure is likely to be, ill-advised attempts to secure the general establishment of regional authorities with comprehensive powers might easily result in more authorities with spending powers instead of fewer, and in greater confusion.

Nor is it clear that at present there is any strong desire for the establishment of regional authorities with executive power. In London, the Royal Commission on Local Government, by a small majority, recommended the establishment of a small statutory advisory committee to advise the appropriate minister

on the questions of transport, town-planning, housing, and main : drainage. This committee was to represent local authorities and : others concerned within a radius of about twenty-five miles from London, but the Royal Commission did not consider that a new executive authority should be established for these or other services. Last December, Mr. Neville Chamberlain addressed a conference of representatives of local authorities and joint townplanning committees in the area of Greater London on this subject. He pointed out that the traffic problem and the distribution of population must be handled together, that outer London and inner London are one whole, and that before any plan could be made for London, a thorough survey was necessary. The Minister of Health expressed his deep sympathy with the proposal to set up a Joint Town Planning Committee for the London Traffic Area, which comprises about 2000 square miles, within a radius of twenty-five miles from Charing Cross; and said that they were working for "the transformation of Greater London from a formless collection of buildings, vehicles and human beings, without organization, into a carefully ordered system in which the needs of all might be met and in which every improvement would be guided so as to satisfy not only their commercial interests, but their highest social aspirations." But the committee now being set up is "advisory," and not "executive."

The inevitable delays and difficulties that have been found in preparing even a survey for Greater London are indications of the impossibility under present conditions, except as a matter of academic theory, of any general establishment of regional bodies with executive powers. Even the Manchester and District Joint Town Planning Committee, which is the furthest advanced of any advisory committee, has not done more than propose joint committees for the preparation of schemes for groups of local authorities in common, without committing itself as to what authorities are to have executive and financial responsibility for carrying them out.

Discussion, therefore, of regional planning must necessarily be somewhat theoretical, for, with the exception of a number of reports of surveys, little actually has been done. The first scheme that emerges from the paper stage into action will be of exceptional interest. As an illustration of the difficulties of translating ideas from the abstract to the actual, Stratford-on-Avon presents an interesting study.

VOL. 245.

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The Stratford-on-Avon Preservation Committee, formed under the chairmanship of Sir Martin Conway, M.P., a few years ago, called in Professor Abercrombie, Professor of Civic Designs at the University of Liverpool, and his brother, Mr. Lascelles Abercrombie, to survey the present condition of Shakespeare's town, and to indicate probable and desirable developments; for it is a growing town, and there is some danger that it may be turned into a sort of Coventry.

The investigators divided the problem of the future growth into two aspects: the first conservative, and the second progressive. They rightly pointed out how necessary it was to conserve the character of the town and the association with Shakespeare. There had been a case, for example, of replacing the ground-floor of an Elizabethan building by a plate-glass shopfront, and clearly such Philistinism should, if possible, be prevented. The consultants recommended that some control should be exercised over the adaptation of old buildings to new needs; over the erection of new buildings in place of demolished old work; and over the restoration, whether by uncovering or by reconstruction, of seventeenth century work. In addition to the town of Stratford, a countryside containing such villages as Shottery, Snitterfield, Wilmcote, Hampton Lucy, and Charlecote—rustic gems set amid typical English scenery-also needed protection. This meant the prohibition of factories, the control of all residential development in the district, and the care of existing footpaths.

The second aspect of the growth of Shakespeare's country emphasised in the report was progressive. Stratford already has several artistic industries—weaving, dyeing, plaster casting, glass work, furniture, printing, and binding. Would it not be possible to allow factories devoted only to clean trades to be erected in places where they would not interfere with existing amenities? Naturally, too, home industries deserved to be encouraged. There was an urgent need for better hotel accommodation. All these suggestions for conservation and for progress were put forward in the report that was issued in 1923. What has happened since ?

In the first place, owing to the demand for houses, the town planning scheme was put on one side, and even in 1927 the preliminary statement has not yet arrived at the Ministry of Health. Consequently, Stratford has been growing in a straggling manner,