LONDON OF FUTURE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 613, 18 August 1933, Page 3

LONDON OF FUTURE

REGION PLANNING COMMITTEE MAKES STARTLING REPORT. SURROUNDED BY TOWNLETS. London ias an immense and thriving dream city of the future is evoked in a startling report of the Regional Planning Oommittee, which reveals revolutionary social charges which have made the metropolis an industrial and residential Mecca for a steady influx of settlers. New townships scattered in a green and pleasant land on a broad belt of eountry surrounding the central area, and "through" motor roia.ds spanned hy bridges for pedestrians — these ideals are outlined hy the committee, which' was set up hy the Government in 1927. The serious lack of housing in the London area emerges from the remarkable statistics which the committee's experts have compiled. Town-planning possibilities for the largest city in the world were what 'the committee had set out to discover. It was found that through the migration of people from central London to the outer suburbs, and the far greater tide of arrivals from the provinces the newly-edevolped districts in Outer London had to provide in the ten years ending in 1931 for well over a million new inhabitants — equ-valent to the population of ten towns of the size of Halifax or Wolverhampton. These multitudes have not settled in definite units, hut are scattered haphazardly.. It is rcommended that well-planned suburban industrial areas should he laid out and equipped sub-units. These would be in three area belts: (1) On the outskirts of built-up London; (2) at a distance of 12 miles from the centre; and (3) as more complete garden cities loeated between 12 and 25 miles from Charing Cross. Drastic Road Changes. Each class of unit would be adapted to the needs of certain types_ of industry, and would be a great improvement, .it is claimed, on the present "haph'azard development." The building of new roads for through traffic is advocated. Restriction of factory building is recommended on roads serving dock and industrial areas roads reserved for light passenger traffic are demandIn spite of the amount of building round London, the deftciency of separate dwellings, as compared with separate families, was together in 1931 than 1921. The committee states: "The^ enormous proportion of families in the central area living two or more in dwellings not built for or adapted to snch occupations suggest a change and deterioration representing prodigious loss of value."