Chapter 5: General conclusions

Development control

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We have dwelt for the most part on the broad principles for dealing with the problem of traffic in towns. But it is a problem that also requires unflagging attention to details. We stress in particular the need for vigilance in the handling of applications for planning consent for development, in order to ensure that new difficulties are not created, nor future prospects thwarted. This, of course, is the normal function of planning control, but in respect of motor traffic two points require special care: first, the cumulative effect of individual projects which, taken alone, appear to create no great additional traffic load; and second, the siting of establishments which cater directly for motor traffic. To give one example, a petrol filling station which gets itself securely rooted in a shopping street not only increases the traffic in the street, but may effectively prevent future conversion of the street to pedestrian use.