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The Politics and Pragmatism of Urban Containment: Belfast Since 1940
The Politics and Pragmatism of Urban Containment Belfast Since 1940 Author:Michael Murray The objective of urban containment in Britain is longstanding, with the most apparent expression of policy being green belt designation. While policy formulation is well documented, evaluation research relating to implementation is spatially selective and deals in the main with the South of England. This book draws upon the British experience, b... more »ut extends academic knowledge by grounding empirical work within a peripheral region of the United Kingdom, whose cultural context and institutional framework have created a much different set of pressures on the planning system. In Northern Ireland, the operation and removal of regional government, the replacement of an outmoded local government structure by a relegated and influential set of District Councils, centralized planning by civil servants and the domestic politics of a sectarian state have combined to shape the formulation and implementation of town and country planning policy. Within this context, the substantive content of the book explores the relationship between the intentions and outcomes of urban containment policy around Belfast. Key topics of investigation include land release on the urban periphery, small settlement planning, the policy-in-action performance of development control within the environs of Belfast, and management of the countryside surrounding the urban area. Empirical evidence allows the operation of existing policies to be questioned in terms of their effectiveness and completeness. The book concludes by advancing a set of proposals for implementation within the institutional status quo of Northern Ireland.« less