Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
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.