Information for urban and regional planning—the European dimension

When one considers the extent of the subject—urban and regional planning and then multiplies that by the number of countries that there are in Europe, it will be apparent that the task of keeping track of all relevant information is a gargantuan one. Indeed any attempt to define urban and regional planning leads to all sorts of difficulties; likewise how is Europe defined? to some it will mean the European Communities; to others the Council of Europe and to a third set of people, the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development—which of course is not solely European at all now that it extends its membership to Canada, the USA, Australia and New Zealand. In order to define an area for the purposes of this seminar, I am going to tell you how one large urban authority—the Greater London Council, attempts to keep itself informed about issues within its European horizons.