The Scottish Borders comprises the historic counties of Peeblesshire, Selkirkshire, Roxburghshire and Berwickshire, traditionally an area synonymous with woven cloth [ tweed], knitwear and agriculture. It is also an area that suffered from rural de-population during the first half of the twentieth century. Against the background of social, economic and political change in the twentieth century, the book provides a detailed account of continuity and change in the practice of town and country planning in the Scottish Borders from the 1940s to the re-organisation of local government in 1996. It shows how town and country planning emerged from being a fringe activity in Borders local government to become a beacon for rural regeneration at the forefront of rural development policy. This book will be an essential read for all those interested in the history of town and country planning in Scotland and for those who love the Scottish Borders.
Studies continuity and change in the practice of town and country planning in the Scottish Borders, 1946-1996
List of Figures and Tables Preface List of AbbreviationsTimeline Map of the Scottish Borders Introduction1 Town and Country Planning Becomes Established 2 The First County Development Plans 3 Planning and Development Become Inexorably Linked 4 Planning in the Scottish Borders Broadens its Horizons 5 A Borders Region at Last! 6 Development Planning Takes Shape7 The 1980s: Challenges and Achievements 8 The 1990s: A Time of Uncertainty 9 Preparing for the Twenty-First Century Epilogue Appendices Bibliography Index
Douglas G Hope has been a town and country planner for over fifty years. After graduating from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth in 1964 with an Honours degree in Geography, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 1965 before pursuing a career in town and country planning. He was elected a Member of the Royal Town Planning Institute in 1970. Following employment in Doncaster, Yorkshire, he moved to Scotland in 1969 and worked with the Scottish Development Department for four years before taking up employment as Depute County Planning and Development Officer with Berwickshire County Council. At local government re-organisation in 1975, he took the position of Assistant Director of Planning and Development with Borders Regional Council and was promoted to Depute Director in 1986. He was on the Executive Committee of the Scottish Society of Directors of Planning from 1989 to 1996 and its Chairman in 1994/95. He was also a Planning Advisor to the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities from 1989 to 1996. Taking early retirement in 1996, Douglas took up an appointment as a Reporter with the Scottish Office Inquiry Reporters Unit, now the Scottish Government's Directorate for Planning and Environmental Appeals, a position he held until 2015. Douglas obtained a PhD in Cultural History at the University of Lancaster in 2015 for his doctoral research into the early outdoor movement and his book on the outdoor pioneer Thomas Arthur Leonard and the Co-operative Holidays Association was published in 2017. He continues to pursue his research interests in the outdoor movement, social history and town and country planning.
