THE NEW TOWNS

19

Leaving too Much to Chance
I ask these questions now because they cannot be left to answer themselves;
 at least, if the principle of social planning is to be maintained in
the New Towns, they ought not to be left to find their own answers. Some
decisions have to be taken now. Schools are the most pressing problem.
But what of houses? Are parts of the designated areas to be left for later
development in order to provide homes for New Town children? Should
construction be halted or slowed down at some point below the maximum
level provided for in the master plans? Surely sufficient space should be
left within the designated area for later housing? In Hemel Hempstead
every possible site has already been earmarked. Some ‘buffer’ is needed,
and needed within the area of the local government housing authority, otherwise
 the town will begin to sprawl and boundaries will have to be adjusted.
This unusual family structure raises a further social problem. In a
normal ‘ old’ residential area, the °three-generation family’ is the rule. In
New Towns, the pattern is largely * two-generation.” Grandparents, brothers,
sisters, cousins—even family friends so close as almost to rank as relatives—
are usually left behind when a couple move to a New Town. This means
that the baby-sitters are left; so too are the helping hands in illness or other
times of family crisis. The family has lost many of the barriers it normally
erects to protect itself within a community and to give itself stability.
Naturally enough, this change has an effect on the family and social
life of the newcomers, and on the vitality of the community organisations
which seek their support. It becomes hard for both parents to go out
together in the evenings; and if one must stay behind, there is often pressure
for the other to stay at home. (Television as a mass entertainment has come
at the right moment for such households.) And the distance from mother
adds to the psychological burdens which a young married woman must
shoulder on moving to a New Town—the unfamiliar experience of making
friends, the loneliness of a new house in a new district, the loss of the
security-giving familv environment.

A Credit Balance

Yet the credit side to this balance sheet must surely offset the criticisms,
the uncertainties and the omissions. The youthfulness of the newcomers
means, in the long run, freshness and energy. The strangeness of the new
surroundings, something that all have in common, is a spur to community
organisation. The newness of it all is a challenge to build and create and
pioneer, bringing out the latent skills, interests and hobbies. In the areas
from which many of these people have come, a neighbourhood organisation
was usually unheard of: in a New Town it is the co-ordinating link in the
chain of community building.
Tastes may also change. The Hatfield Corporation says of its experiment
 in providing a ‘ Show House’ furnished by the Council of Industrial
Design: ‘Perhaps it may be interesting to mention that the effect of the
Council of Industrial Design’s method and manner of furnishing the modern
small house is noticeable in the houses of our tenants.” Here, surely. is an