When it was first published many people were confused and thought it to be a framework of proposals, it was not.

The Colin Buchanan company carried out a survey and analysis. Basically they established what was already in place, what was in progress of being placed and what was in the approval process. Taking all this and applying various computer based tools, the socio-economic trends for the area were established and the constraints of terrain etc viewed in the context of the key road and rail network.

The map that resulted showed a vast, twinned corridor development evolving with the two crossing at an international hub airport. A great many people viewed the map as a threat and tried to raise objections to it to no avail of course as Buchanan were playing no part in the planning process apart from making recommendations in general terms they were simply showing where development would take place potentially.

With the power of hindsight the work was good, much of that development can now be seen to be either taking place or becoming ever more likely.

Recent planning developments show that this concept is still very much alive and the East of England Plan is fully consistent with it.

The original report was on behalf of the Government and was part of the build-up to the White Paper since then Buchanan has carried out further work of a similar nature for others e.g. a study on behalf of EERA in 2003.

In the text of the report it is suggested that the developments should not be limited to domestic else the airport would become too dominant as an employer. A mix of new  jobs is recommended which translates as encouraging light industrial investment plus all the service industries which would develop naturally around the whole. With the airport then centrally located plus extremely good road and rail facilities the freight side of the airport would grow along with the passenger.

Personally I think that this map is the vision of the future and the aiport is just a part of it. 

As a footnote with the power of hindsight the above was not the full story. There is an implication within the texts that should the expansion of the airport not happen then the massive development of the whole area will not be necessary. Not obvious however was the fact that the airport already had the necessary permissions to expand all its facilities such as to maximise its use of the one existing runway. This has now happened and even the roads got upgraded i.e. the new A120. The now fully established extra air traffic both freight and passenger has been more than enough for the first phases of the above map to be in process of actually happening.