The main concern of the geographer and town planner Sir Peter Hall, who has died aged 82, was the growth and change of cities. Britain's leading expert in the field, he was professor of planning and regeneration at the Bartlett, University College London, and president of the Town and Country Planning Association, where we were fellow activists, and the Regional Studies Association. In addition to research, teaching and acting as his subject's great communicator, he had a direct involvement in public policy.
The special adviser on strategic planning (199194) to the environment secretary Michael Heseltine, he helped shape the vision of the East Thames Corridor (later Thames Gateway) and Channel Tunnel rail link (now HS1). He was a somewhat dissident member of John Prescott's Urban Task Force (199899), being uncomfortable with his colleagues' enthusiasm for the dense developments referred to by some as "town cramming". Peter was a member of the expert advisory committee to the review of the planning system headed by the economist Kate Barker (2006) and the Eco-Towns Challenge Panel (2008).
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