The Battle of Archway Road

Abstract

The Archway battle, like lhat of the Aire Valley, was concerned from the beginning with getting the inquiry — and thus the road widening scheme and its side roads —abandoned. It was, and at the time of writing still is, designated as a Side Roads Order Inquiry, the side roads being the result of a Line Order (road widening and realignment) Inquiry that had taken place in 1973.

It is not that people are utterly selfish. During the war they were ready to make great sacrifices, because it was clear why they were being asked to do so. So, too, people now could be reconciled to sacrifices on their part if they were shown to be necessary. The trouble with the present planning procedures is that they do not, and as they are at present constituted cannot, achieve any measure of reconciliation because the onus of proof is the wrong way round. The damage done by the department’s proposals is obvious, real and keenly felt; it is not obvious that there will be corresponding benefits — the department does not prove that there is any need for its proposals, only asserts that there is — nor is it apparent that the benefits, if they exist, will outweigh the losses.

J. R. Lucas, Democracy and Participation (Harmondsworth: Pelican Books, 1976) pp. 275–6