COUNTY PLANNING IN THE SCOTTISH BORDERS

The first planning legislation, the 1909 Housing and Town Planning Act arose from the campaign for higher quality living environments, led by the Garden City Movement. Urban sprawl and ribbon development during the inter-war period created new challenges, and the need for large-scale reconstruction after the Second World War led to a number of studies on land utilisation and the future control of development, resulting in the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1947. This Act, combined with the New Towns Act 1946 and the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949, created a system designed to fulfil the social, economic and environmental objectives of reconstruction and provide a long-term basis for land management. In Scotland, regional planning was pioneered by Patrick Geddes and taken up by the likes of Robert Matthew and Frank Mears. Mears's Regional Plan for Central and South-East Scotland, published in 1948, was the first study to highlight the plight of the Scottish Borders, with its dependence on the textile industry and agriculture and its problems of rural depopulation, which contrasted starkly with the problems of urban sprawl and suburban expansion in the urban areas, which were the driving forces behind the British town planning movement.

The four county planning authorities in the Scottish Borders, established after the Second World War, were under-staffed and under-resourced. Planning committees were advised by the county clerk, assisted by the county surveyor or county architect. The lack of qualified planning staff restricted their ability to produce the development plans required under the 1947 Act and consultants were appointed to undertake this work. It would be 1965 before there was total development plan coverage of the Scottish Borders. Throughout the 1950s, planning activity was centred on development control with emerging issues related to the growth in car ownership and leisure time. The county development plans, updated by formal amendments and augmented by non-statutory studies and reports would provide the framework for development decisions until 1975 and the reorganisation of local government. Development plans were based on the optimistic assump-tion that the continued loss of population in the landward areas would be offset by growth in the textile industry in the burghs supported by an expanded programme of local authority housing for incoming workers. However, throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the population of the region continued to decline; by over 10,000 people between 1951 and 1971 to below 100,000 people.