INTRODUCTION

Following the reorganisation of local government in 1975, the development planning system was composed of National Planning Guidelines, regional reports and structure and local plans. The impetus for the establishment of guidance from central government came from the environmental problems emerging as a result of the demand for sites for oil-platform construction yards in the north and west of Scotland. The Coastal Planning Guidelines, published in 1974, were followed by National Planning Guidelines (NPG) on a diverse range of develop-ment circumstances and types, including agricultural land, housing land, nature conservation, rural planning priorities and forestry, guidelines of much more relevance to the Scottish Borders (see Appendix 4). NPGs were widely acknowledged as an innovative and helpful mechanism to planning authorities in defining national interests in selected topics. However, according to Begg and Pollock, ‘they tended to be rather bland and fall far short of representing a comprehensive compendium of government policy interests or in providing a national framework for land-use planning’.

The requirement for regional reports stemmed from the government's desire to establish a regional framework for policymaking and for determining resource priorities as quickly as possible following reorganisation. The foresight of the constituent counties of the Borders Region meant that a regional report for the Borders Region was prepared within the stipulated time of one year. Although regional reports had the potential to be a vehicle for corporate planning, they were intended primarily as a physical planning document. The SoS only offered observations on the submitted regional report; formal approval was not required. The production of regional reports was the subject of debate and controversy and there followed considerable speculation on their future. In 1982, the SDD informed all regional and island councils that there would be no requirement to review regional reports in view of the progress on structure plans; the range of other policy documents that had been developed, such as Housing Plans and Transport Policies and Programmes; and because of the increasing financial and manpower constraints under which central and local government was operating. According to many, an opportunity had been lost to continue the co-ordinated working within authorities that the process of preparing regional reports had encouraged.