Welsh Office and predecessors: Town and Country Planning Division and predecessors:...

BD 28

1940-1993

This series consists of local authority case files in the P series and general and policy files in the PG series.

The files were originally raised in the Welsh Offices of the Ministry of Town and Country Planning and of the Ministry of Local Government and Planning and later the Welsh Office of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government. Following the setting up of the Welsh Office after 1964, they passed to the Town and Country Planning Division of the new department.

Under the Town and Country Planning Acts of 1944 and 1947, local planning authorities were required to survey their areas and to prepare and submit development plans. Included in the P series are submissions from all the Welsh county and county borough councils (the local planning authorities). Also included are files dealing with such functions as appeals against refusal to permit development, tree preservation orders, use of land by the armed services and post war housing development. Included in the PG series are files dealing with the setting up and administration of two national parks, the location of industry and the minutes of meetings of various Welsh industrial panels and committees. Also contained are policy and case files relating to the work of the Derelict Land Unit.

In addition to town and country planning matters generally many files concern development plans, the establishment and running of national parks within Wales and the removal of coal tips at Aberfan and elsewhere, following the disaster in 1966. The series includes a number of maps, plans and photographs.

The case files are arranged in numerical order of the code number allocated to each authority by the Welsh Office of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government. These numbers were allocated alphabetically within each category of local authority (i.e. county councils, county borough councils, etc), in descending hierarchical order. Inconsistencies in the arrangement occur when there has been a change of status or name with no consequential change of code number: e.g. Llwchwr UDC has the number 434 of the former Swansea RDC.

The remainder of the file number indicates the subject with, in some instances, sub-numbers. For example, for P 222/1 206/6/2, Breconshire CC (222), Subject number 1206, Sub-numbers 6 & 2, the Subject number -/1206 indicates 'War Department', and Subject number -/-/6 indicates 'land requirements'

The numbering system of the DLU (Derelict Land Unit) files is the same as the rest of the planning series. Some of the later files carry the suffix DLU. This was to link in with a change in Welsh Office filing policy.

General policy files (PG series) are arranged in numerical order of the number allocated to the subject. The number is the same for each subject as the second component of the case files series numbers. The remainder of the number indicates a sub-division of the subject or is a running number.

For local authority orders and other documents relating to subordinate legislation in Wales, see BD 20 HLG 71 HLG 79

Similar earlier and contemporary papers are to be found in:

P and PG file series

Public Record(s)

English

• Ministry of Housing and Local Government, Wales Office, 1951-1964
• Ministry of Local Government and Planning, Wales Office, 1951-1951
• Ministry of Town and Country Planning, Welsh Regional Office, 1943-1951
• Welsh Office, Town and Country Planning Division, 1967-1977
• Welsh Office, Welsh Affairs Division, 1965-1967

1116 files and flat sheets

Open

From 1984 Welsh Office

Topics

Maps and plans

Coal

Forestry

Planning (Land and Property)

Disasters and emergencies

Armed Forces (General Administration)

Local Government

Series is accruing.

The Derelict Land Unit (unique in the United Kingdom) was set up a month after the Aberfan disaster in November 1966. Its aims were to lead, encourage and co-ordinate a programme of reclamation to clear away dangerous derelict sites and restore land to productive and beneficial use. Since many land reclamation schemes were designed to create land for new industry, the functions of reclamation were transferred to the Welsh Development Agency in 1975.