In 1946 the British government passed into law the New Towns Act. This move was to establish a set of ‘planned communities’ around the country in otherwise unpopulated areas, with the idea of creating new settlements that could become new neighbourhoods and new economic centres. The very first wave of New Towns began in 1947 with Stevenage, followed by Hemel Hempstead, Newton Aycliffe, Peterlee, Bracknell, Basildon, Corby, Crawley and Harlow. Scotland also got Cumbernauld, East Kilbride, and Glenrothes, This first wave of New Towns were designed with very similar structures, infrastructures, planning and elements. All of them had certain ‘wards’ or areas, such as ‘the Stow’ in Harlow—a sort of sub-suburb—that became a designated neighbourhood. Other small neighbourhoods were also created in Harlow as well as all the other new towns.
All had similar infrastructures such as their own hospitals, shopping centres, pubs, theatres, doctors surgeries, dentists and so on. They were all designed to be self-incorporated and to be a part of a local county council that would administer and govern them as part of their constituency.
The second wave came in the early 1960’s with Livingston, Washington, Telford, Redditch, Runcorn, Skelmersdale, Irvine, and Stonehouse. Meanwhile, the already established New Towns were setting a trendy example of how to grow as communities and thrive in their own rights. Businesses were springing up and people were flocking to take their specialist skills to the areas where they were needed. People needed windows in Livingston, mechanics in Stevenage and so on.
Modern Development
New Towns continue to spread because even though they are regarded as ‘New Towns’ they are actually no longer very new. Most of them are knocking on seventy years old now with the younger ones around the fifty year mark. This has given them plenty of time to become embedded and established as their own towns in their own rights with their own set of local foibles.
Some of the Garden Cities, such as Welwyn Garden City and Letchworth were established in 1930 and 1903 respectively but were not classified as New Towns. They were established garden cities because they were heavily landscaped, very beautiful and designed to attract new residents from other places.
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