National Resources Plan

While a person may be considered to have an inherent right of ownership over him- or herself and the products of his or her own creation, the Natural Resources pose a different problem.

The Natural Resources are natural. By their very definition they are not man-made, and are therefore not automatically associated with or attributable to any individual. But people need to use natural resources for food, shelter, raw materials and recreation and must therefore make claims upon resources which are not inherently theirs. Thus it is clear that rights to the use of Natural Resources must be created or apportioned.

Various solutions have been found and practised through the ages. The law may leave individuals to fight out claims amongst themselves, perhaps with a resulting tenure by a few influential families; the law may attempt a fair and productive apportionment; or the State (or dictator or monarch) may take total resources ownership into its own hands.

In medieval Britain monarchs handed out land as rewards for favours, creating the great manorial estates. In the 1800s land-use patterns changed as agriculture became less important, giving way to industry and the great urban industrial centres. Thereafter it was largely the free market that determined land use, and many might believe that this continues to be the case.

In reality land-use in Britain's overcrowded island today is determined by local and national planning decisions based on complex land-use rules which have grown up haphazardly over the centuries, decisions often made arbitrarily and secretively, and largely as reactions to events of the moment without the benefit of long-range planning or of truly open consultation.

The existing pressures on land-use can only increase, as the traditional claims we make upon land - for housing, industry and commerce, transport routes and harbours, agriculture and mining - are now being extended by increased demands for greater leisure access to countryside, preservation of areas of outstanding natural beauty, and a greater respect for the environment.

How does the Principle of Non-Imposition apply to the apportionment and guidance of resources use?

We begin with the Principle of Non-Imposition itself, the essence of which is: liberty, until that liberty infringes the liberty of others. On a basis of presumed liberty, the duty of government is to identify and prevent through legislation those actions which are harmful or injurious to others.

In order to establish a basis for fair, equitable and responsible resources use, the Principle of Non-Imposition would require three steps:

First, as a working foundation, the formulation of an overall Landplan based on a full inventory of natural resources; second, estimates of current and future demands; and third the institution of a Resources-use Forum in which availability can to the best extent possible be reconciled with actual and anticipated demands.

Land has its own inherent potentialities. Certain areas may offer excellent agricultural soil while others conceal significant mineral deposits. Some areas are outstanding in natural beauty, while certain forest or river systems make their own demands for special treatment on ecological grounds. Clearly Government cannot fulfil its role as adjudicator unless and until it is fully informed as to the detailed nature of the nation's total natural resources.

The inventory of availability would take the form of a national map on which every kind of resource is clearly indicated.

The duty of those concerned with the provision of availability data must be to provide a detailed, continuously updated - and publicly accessible - inventory showing the location, extent and nature of all resources.

The Inventory would show, for example: mineral deposits, water supplies, agricultural land graded as to quality and suitability for different crops, areas of outstanding natural beauty, areas suitable for urban settlement, as well as those areas or resources which should be handled with especial sensitivity as being appropriate for wildlife preserves or necessary for environmental wellbeing.

The second stage requires the preparation of an ongoing assessment of demands upon the resources both current and anticipated, based on a thorough and fundamental analysis.

As a basis the analysis begins objectively by looking at populations and their broad, predictable needs for urban living, trade and cultural facilities, agriculture, minerals, recreation and retreat. Individuals and special-interest groups as "consumers" will then fill out the picture with additional needs and ideas such as wilderness homes or specific recreation facilities.

The two banks of resources data: the Availability Inventory, and the assessment of actual and anticipated demands, can then be coordinated by a Natural Resources and Land-use Forum to produce an overall ongoing National Resources Plan.

On this basis, clear guidelines can be established for such broad national uses as major agricultural needs, recreation, mining, transport and urban development.

The Land-use Forum has its purpose and procedures clearly set out in its own Articles of Constitution. Its members represent every aspect of land and resources use; its deliberations, as well as the data on which they are based, must be open at all times to public scrutiny and input.

Its object is an ongoing National Landplan, representing the continuing definition of zoning and planning guidelines and restrictions at national level, from which local level plans can then be made.

But it is not only our Human requirements that we must consider.

We need to use the Natural Resources, certainly. But we must do so within the limitations of environmental responsibility, and we must give back the equivalent of what we take through our stewardship and enhancement of our environment.

This necessary approach to our relationship with our environment is formalized and brought into the overall resources-use planning process by the simple expedient of according to the Environment the status of a legal entity having its own rights, defined in law, to respectful and responsible treatment and to good stewardship, rights which must stand as equals in law to our own competing Human claims. Just as minors are represented by Counsel in courts of law, so our environment is permanently represented by an Environmental Protection Council operating under Constitutional authority.

Some environmental objectives might be listed as follows: zero land/water/air pollution; zero garbage, achieved by eliminating garbage at source through recycling and increased use of reusable containers; promotion of organic farming; identification and protection of all significant natural ecosystems and major wildlife habitats.

Under the Principle of Non-Imposition broad planning guidelines are based on objective data providing accurate information on availability and informed estimates of present and future needs, formulated with the widest possible input. It is a continuing challenge and responsibility challenge incumbent upon all, planners and users alike, to use our resources wisely and responsibly, minimizing waste, providing for as many needs as possible, and reaching decisions in the common interest with the minimum of misinformation and acrimony. A similar policy of land-use has historically been applied in the United States to the administration of that country's surprisingly vast area of Public Lands. It is little known outside the United States that some 270 million acres, about one-eighth of the USA, is managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) - in addition to land already set aside for National and State forests, parks, and wildlife refuges.

The BLM has been mandated by Congress to manage Public Lands on a continuing basis for multiple use and sustained yield, taking into consideration the reconciliation of the varied demands made upon the land, as well as concepts of stewardship and husbandry.

A significant area of forward planning in resources-use lies in the development of urban areas.

And here there is more at stake than simple land-use issues; for the town or city is a service in itself, a machine which must be properly designed and maintained if it is to function efficiently and fulfil the demands of its residents, its customers.

Homes, jobs, shops, market gardening, leisure facilities, all of these and the many other needs of a civilized society are part of what may be called community.

An efficiently functioning community offers a wide variety of facilities and opportunities in pleasant surroundings, with easy and convenient movement between them. Needless to say, the kind of sprawling city served by traffic-clogged streets so familiar in the past would not be described as functioning efficiently!


Urban Development

The typical town or city in the New Age is somewhat different from those of earlier times, yet certain basic principles revert back to the Middle Ages.

Historically, market towns developed as centres for trade and culture serving their surrounding villages, farms and countryside. Movement was on a radial pattern linking the surroundings with the centre. Though movement patterns later became confused by random development, the basic nature and purpose of the town or city centre has always remained: it exists to serve as a focal point for the surrounding communities, providing opportunities for work, trade, and culture, linked like a web to its outlying, dependent area.

Returning in the New Age to the basic, traditional living patterns, villages, each with its convenience store, church, kindergarten and recreational green, are linked to their nearest town which offers a wider choice of goods, services, employment and activities; towns are then linked to a central city, providing those highly specialized employment opportunities, goods, services and activities which can only be supported by the overall regional market.

The totality of city with dependent towns, villages and countryside is the County or Region, ideally of about three-quarters to a million people, self-sufficient in jobs, in choice of goods and services, cultural and intellectual amenities, with open land offering space for market-gardening, leisure and recreation.

The importance of establishing and defining Regional Centres lies in focalizing commercial development at the centre and providing coordinated transport links. On this basis, the limits of villages, towns and cities can be defined, surrounded by parkland giving way to wilderness areas.

The fundamental definition of the Community, its nature and its purpose establishes that the Community or Region is not simply an assemblage of unrelated parts, but a working system in its own right which needs fundamental and coherent planning if it is to function efficiently whilst preserving character and a pleasant livable environment.

It is particularly important that transport patterns and routes be clearly established. Movement within the County/Region is by its nature radial, reflecting the interdependence of the County's centre linking with its outlying towns and villages.

But each County is a self-contained unit; thus the movement pattern between County Centres should represent their equal importance to each other by working on a grid basis, allowing travel from any County Centre to any other with equal convenience.

As to the question of transport mode, in the New Age the private car has given way to shared public transport. Past experience proved clearly that the road/car system was not capable of satisfying the multiple needs for fast, safe, reliable and non-polluting transportation. However, public transport can only serve efficiently when it is coordinated with urban development, returning once again to the need for informed long-range planning both at National, and Regional level.

Our historical residential planning concepts, based on wide roads for car access, combined with road widening and provision of more parking spaces in towns and cities, only served to perpetuate dependence on the car, since spread and sprawl can only be served by individual vehicles. Thus the demise of public transport became inevitable. Only in compact residential and urban developments can public transport flourish viably.

In the New Age, by concentrating rather than sprawling new urban and residential developments and by linking them with the Regional transport system we can provide both transport for the Community, and customers for the transport.

The Regional Centre is the focal point for a radial public transport system serving the surrounding Region/County. These radial transport spokes serve the dependent towns, with ongoing links to the smaller surrounding villages and communities.

In the New Age, compact residential and commercial developments require minimum footprint, offer walking-distance convenience between home, work or shops, and facilitate the provision of fast, clean, frequent ad cost-effective shared transportation.


Landpricing

The issue of fair prices relating to goods and services is discussed under the heading 'Economics and Commerce'. In the present context we consider the question of land prices.

In the past it was always assumed that land prices should be determined by the free market. But its results were not always beneficial. Land speculation drove up prices, and a simple planning decision to develop a field for commerce or housing could make a farmer rich far beyond his agricultural income. Rising land prices tended to favour sprawl, as homes, shopping malls and businesses naturally moved out to areas of less value.

More seriously, from a New Age viewpoint we can now see that rising land prices were economically regressive. Prosperity is created by productivity, by increasing value without increasing cost. Rising land prices do just the opposite: they increase the cost of land without increasing its inherent value, and this has a similarly inflationary effect on the services using land. This was particularly evident in major cities, since "value" in the sense of what buyers get for their money, decreases as land prices increase.

There is little or nothing in the way of goods and services which is not affected by the price of land; rising real estate prices affect everything from offices to retail shops, cafés, and places of entertainment. The escalation of land prices became a major contributor to the high cost of urban living. It also caused a deterioration in urban quality of life; many of Europe's old established city cafés which had for centuries been centres for meeting and socializing were now being forced to close as a direct result of escalating rents.

In the New Age the city or town centre retains its function as a gathering place since rents, now based simply on progressive capital write-off and maintenance charges, are economic for those low-profit uses such as markets and cafés which provide vitality and enjoyment for users. This is accomplished by vesting tenure in the hands of a locally administered Urban Trust, which ensures maintenance and management of the facility either itself or by a contracted agency.

Of equal importance is affordable housing. A home is one of the very foundations of life itself. In the past, house prices escalated beyond the point where young people entering the market could hope to afford a decent home.

It is the responsibility of Government, at national and local level, to ensure through informed, participatory and enlightened planning that the Natural Resources are used fairly, productively, and responsibly.

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