Review: To make it to four or five editions is the mark of a great text so how do you classify 14? Probably as an institution and one, as the forward sadly relates, that no will no longer contain the works of one of Britain's most outstanding planning academics. In over 40 years, Cullingworth has documented fundamental changes in the ways in which planning is perceived and operated. This can be seen clearly in the organisation of the various editions of this book. Earlier versions relied on a reasoned analysis of a range of Acts, Statutes and Orders. They were complete studies in themselves and this reviewer will add this text alongside a fair selection of earlier editions! This edition acknowledges that planning has changed so significantly that it needs a different approach to cover it. Thus this text looks both at law and the organisations that make it function.

We start, as in previous editions, with an analysis of the ideas behind planning and the way in which the British system is supposed to work. From this, chapter two provides us with a brief history of the planning system preferring to keep the start to the mid-nineteenth century from whence it can be traced to our current modern system. One of the biggest changes is that planning has moved away from a group of specialist 'planners' to a far wider audience. It is appropriate then that chapter three tries to highlight the main groups and their roles in this developing system from the EU to the local council. If the number of interested parties has increased it follows that the system must be more complex - a view that chapter four's look at the planning system does nothing to dispel. It's in these two chapters that we see the greatest conceptual break from the past. One area that has received more than its fair share of change is development control and this widely used and controversial topic is the focus of chapter five. Town and Country planning as we know it started with the idea that land has a national perspective - i.e. that it could be effectively nationalised. It was this revelation that led us to a series of key reports of whom Uthwatt's is the opening example in chapter six. The environment was a small almost detached part of the planning process in earlier years but now, along with sustainable development, it has taken on a far greater role. Chapter 7 outlines this role and highlights the extent of the policy reach. Chapter 8 is a slim chapter which looks at the important but far less altered notion of heritage planning whilst an equally small chapter 9 focusses on rural changes. As rural changes have been seen in heritage and nature areas then a similar marking of territory has been seen in urban regeneration with a plethora of schemes to help reverse urban decline. Transport comes under scrutiny in chapter 11 although it is clear that it is not the key focus it once was. A final chapter examining the role of planners in the system concludes the book. No more fitting end can be seen for changes than this introspective examination. An extensive bibliography completes the text.

This is a fitting edition for a reputation such as Cullingworth's to be judged on. He and his co-author have succeeded in that most difficult of tasks - making the complex seem simple and yet keeping the essence in a restricted page length. Simply, it is a tour-de-force and one that should expect to be found on every library shelf.