Regional fulfilment: Planning into administration in the Clyde Valley 1944-84

Clydeside has been a distinctive case of British regional planning and administration since 1944. With the abolition of the English Metropolitan County Councils in 1986, it became unique. Clydeside's experience has been associated with special Scottish political circumstances, protecting the idea of regional planning which Scottish interests harnessed to bargain for favours in government resources. The Clyde Valley Plan of 1946, West Central Scotland Plan of 1974 and Strathclyde Regional Council of 1975, reflected evolving ideas of the Clydeside region, of planning and administration. The performance and strategic influence of the two advisory Plans is compared with experience under the succeeding Regional Council. Against the successful long-term achievement of the Clyde Valley Plan's proposals and its significant influence on Scottish public affairs, its historic dispute with Glasgow over the role of the new towns is re-examined in the light of present circumstances. It is suggested that the unforeseen increase of government intervention in Scottish strategic regional development, through a range of government agencies whose roles have become collectively more significant since the creation of Strathclyde Regional Council, has coincidentally reduced the planning case for local government reorganization but helped stabilize regional administration in Scotland when it was collapsing in England.