Perspectives on British Rural Policy and Planning

Rural planning has become a complex activity in which policies in one area have important ramifications in other policy areas. In addition these policies have been subject to rapid change in recent years. It is thus very important for all those involved in rural planning affairs to remain not only up to date, but to place recent developments in a longer perspective. This is the first volume in a series which aims to answer all these needs by providing an accurate and informed account of recent developments in British rural policy, and critiques of the implementation of policy and its impacts from published research finds. This book considers the period from the autumn of 1994 to the 1st May 1997 - the date when the Labour Party were elected to power for the first time since June 1979. Within the text, individual chapters are structured around thematic sectors and take a descriptive rather than an analytical approach. However, reference is made from time to time to the analytical devices employed in Gilg's "Countryside Planning". Two themes form the core of each section: first, legislative change based on actual changes and proposed changes; second, evaluation of policy effects by goverment agencies, pressure groups and books. The principal aim of the series is thus to update the reader on policy development and implementation, and to make general observations on policy impacts.