Urban distribution problems and opportunities in the UK

This paper featured in the one‐day conference held in London in May '79. The conference, entitled ‘Urban distribution — strategy for the future’ and organised by the National Materials Handling Centre, had two objectives: to bring about a greater awareness of the causes of problems in delivering goods to our major cities and to emphasise the need for closer liaison at local level between the planning authority and shops and transport operators, in order to better pursue solutions to such problems. The call for co‐operation is one of the key points of this particular paper; the need to make the distribution operation more efficient whilst keeping town and city habitable. The solutions offered are practical and take the path of steady progress, the measures recommended being fairly well tried already. However, the need for experiment is reiterated.