| AdminHistory | Livingston officially became the fourth of the five Scottish New Towns created under the New Towns (Scotland) Act 1946. Livingston Development Corporation was set up to create and co-ordinate new industrial activity in the Central Belt of Scotland and thereby help cope with the population over-spill from Glasgow by providing new homes and employment. The target population for Livingston Development Corporation area was 70,000, the population in 1991 was 43,300.
The statutory order which established the Corporation, the New Town (Livingston) (Development Corporation) Order 1962, was not formally passed until 9 July 1962, but Livingston New Town formally came into being on 17 April 1962 with the first meeting of the Corporation Board.
The organisational structure of the Corporation changed gradually over the 34 years with titles and responsibilities of chief officers and directors changing as the town developed. Throughout the Corporation's life, the day to day running was undertaken by the General Manager (later Chief Executive) with Directors responsible for each major function of the Corporation's work. The General Manager/Chief Executive was responsible to a Board consisting of 8 or 9 members, led by a chairman. In the early days of the Corporation there were five chiefs of department: Chief Finance Officer, Chief Architect and Planning Officer, Housing and Social Relations manager, Secretary and Legal Adviser, and Chief Engineer.
By the 1990s rearrangements had resulted in four services: Finance & Management Services (finance, legal, personnel & training, computer services, administration and internal audit), Technical (Planning & Landscape, Architectural Services, Engineering and Quantity Surveying), Property Services (Housing, Client Services, Direct Labour Organisation, Landscape & Forestry Organisation), Commercial (Industrial Estates, Marketing).
The decision to wind-up the New Towns came from the Scottish Office in 1992. The Parliamentary Order was given that Livingston Development Corporation would finally dissolve on 31 March 1997. Planning was the first function to transfer to the new West Lothian Council, a unitary authority, in April 1996. Property Services followed to West Lothian in November 1996 after a Housing Ballot, although the Craigshill, Howden and sheltered housing tenants decided to transfer to private landlords instead of the council. Most remaining functions were transferred to West Lothian on 31 of December 1996. The final department, the Records Management Unit, transferred on 14 March 1997. A final dissolution period concluded on 31 March 1997. |
| Extent | 5 subfonds comprising 12,482 files, c. 17,600 maps and plans, 801 deed plans, c. 20,000 photographs, c. 10 photographic slides, 44 minute books, 44 annual reports, 7 ledgers, 6 cash books, 12 awards certificates, 155 microfilm cartridges, 34 advertising posters, 42 umatic tapes, 8 16mm films, 45 VHS tapes, and 20 presentation boards. |