Records of the Transport, Highways and Planning Divisions and predecessors

Division within BD

1921-1999

Records of the Transport, Highways and Planning Divisions and predecessors relating to transport and planning matters in Wales.

Consists of:

• Common lands, BD 49.
• Divisional Road Engineer's Office, BD 31.
• Planning Division, BD 64.
• Planning Services Division, BD 48.
• Roads Division 5, BD 30, BD 43, BD 62 and BD 99.
• Town and Country Planning Division, BD 28.
• Transport, Highways and Planning Group and predecessors (Transport Policy Division), BD 39 and BD 95.
• Public Inquiry into the Chester to Bangor Trunk Road (A55), BD 104.
• Roads Administration Division registered files, BD 112.
• Planning Services Division registered files (PLS prefix), BD 118.
• Roads Division and successors: Bridges Engineering (BE) prefix: Registered Files BD 131.
• Transport and Highways Group (ZA) prefix: Registered Files BD 140.

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
• Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation, Divisional Road Engineers, Wales and Monmouthshire, 1953-1959
• Ministry of Transport, Divisional Office, Wales, 1919-1941
• Ministry of Transport, Divisional Road Engineers, Wales and Monmouthshire, 1946-1953
• Ministry of Transport, Divisional Road Engineers, Wales and Monmouthshire, 1959-1965
• Ministry of War Transport, Divisional Office, Wales, 1941-1946
• Welsh Office, Roads Division, 1965-1976
• Welsh Office, Town and Country Planning Division, 1967-1977
• Welsh Office, Transport, Highways and Planning Group, 1984-1988
• Welsh Office, Welsh Affairs Division, 1965-1967

16 series

Topics

Road Transport

Common land

Transport management

Planning (Land and Property)

The Ministry of Town and Country Planning Act 1943 transferred responsibility for town and country planning in Wales from the Welsh Board of Health to the Welsh Regional Office of the Ministry, one of eight such offices in England and Wales.

Following the merger of the Ministry of Town and Country Planning with the housing and environmental health divisions of the Ministry of Health to form the Ministry of Housing and Local Government in 1951 new responsibilities were given to the Regional Office in Cardiff. This office, in turn, became the nucleus of the new Welsh Office in 1965.

The Ministry of Transport's divisional office in Cardiff, together with a subsidiary office in Colwyn Bay managed the road programme in Wales and reported directly to the appropriate headquarters division of the Ministry of Transport in London. In April 1965, the Secretary of State for Wales took over the office on the transfer of the powers of the Ministry of Transport in Wales to the Welsh Office.