Cost benefit analysis in urban expansion

Lichfield N. (1969) Cost benefit analysis in urban expansion. A case study: Peterborough, Reg. Studies 3, 123–155. The City of Peterborough is to be expanded by a New Town Development Corporation to accommodate twice its present population, of 80,000. In 1966 the Minister appointed an inter-disciplinary team of Consultants to prepare a Draft Basic plan as a basis for the area to be designated for the expansion. At an early stage in the design process it emerged that the expansion appeared to allow for at least four conceptually different approaches, termed hypotheses. Cost benefit analysis in the form of the Planning Balance Sheet was then used to evaluate these approaches, and to form the basis for designing a fifth, which became the recommended designated area. The article presents the analysis and shows how the technique of the Planning Balance Sheet can be used as a design tool in the process of plan making and as a method of setting out the rationale behind the Plan recommended by the professional pl...