CLERK'S DEPARTMENT: PLANNING

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: MCC/CL/PL
Held at	: London Metropolitan Archives   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/lma ›
Full title	: CLERK'S DEPARTMENT: PLANNING
Date(s)	: 1922-1965
Level of description	: Collection
Extent	: 17.16 linear metres
Name of creator(s)	: MCC | Middlesex County Council x Middlesex County Council

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

When the County Council became a planning authority in 1948 its planning duties were, broadly, to control the development of land in the County and to prepare a Development Plan. Between the wars Middlesex had grown at a phenomenal rate, producing sprawl and over-industrialisation, with the attendant problems of competing uses for the remaining available land.

The County Development Plan, which laid down the future pattern of land use in Middlesex, was approved by the Minister of Housing and Local Government in 1956 and the Review of the Plan was before the Minister in 1964. The Plan maintained a careful balance of competing uses and was primarily directed towards the maintenance of the Green Belt, a limitation on uses giving rise to employment and improved provision of open space and land for the social services. Under its planning policies, the County Council arranged for hundreds of trees to be planted near main thoroughfares and acquired about fifty wrongly sited premises in order to extinguish their industrial uses.

In carrying out its planning functions the Council worked in close co-operation with the local authorities and under its delegation scheme a large number of applications for planning permission were dealt with by the borough and district councils.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Records of the Middlesex County Council Clerk's Department relating to planning, 1922-1965, including papers relating to the County Development Plan at both draft and review stages; town and county planning legislation and its effect on the Planning Department; correspondence relating to the decentralisation and relocation of industry; papers relating to new towns and out of county development; papers on the staffing of the Planning Department; papers relating to planning committees, conferences and panels; papers of Joint Planning Committees; papers relating to town planning in specific areas of Middlesex including Acton, Brentford and Chiswick, Ealing, Edmonton, Enfield, Feltham, Finchley, Friern Barnet, Harrow, Hayes and Harlington, Hendon, Heston and Isleworth, Hornsey, Potters Bar, Ruslip, Southall, Southgate, Staines, Sunbury on Thames, Teddington, Tottenham, Twickenham, Uxbridge, Wembley, Willesden, Wood Green and Yiewsley; minutes and reports of the Greater London Regional Planning Committee; papers relating to the Standing Conference on London Regional Planning; papers relating to the Advisory Committee on London Regional Planning, and papers relating to the rights of way survey.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

MCC/CL/PL/01: General; MCC/CL/PL/02-06: Joint Planning Committees; MCC/CL/PL/07: Town planning schemes; MCC/CL/PL/08: Greater London regional planning; MCC/CL/PL/09: Standing conference on London regional planning; MCC/CL/PL/10: Advisory committee on London planning; MCC/CL/PL/11: Objections to rights of way survey.

Conditions governing access:

Available for general access.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copyright to these records rests with the Corporation of London.

Finding aids:

Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Acquired with the records of its parent authority, the Middlesex County Council, and with successor authorities.

Allied Materials

Related material:

For more records relating to planning, including maps and plans, see MCC/CL/L/PL and MCC/CL/MP.

Publication note:

For further information on the history of the Middlesex County Council please see Middlesex by Sir Clifford Radcliffe (2 editions, 1939 and 1953), LMA Library reference 97.09 MID; and The County Council of the Administrative County of Middlesex: 76 years of local government, 1 April 1889 to 31 March 1965, by Middlesex County Council (1965), LMA library reference S97.09 MID.

Description Notes

Archivist's note:

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
April to June 2009