At Newcastle, he took charge of a newly created department—one of the first planning departments in the country—and worked closely with the city council's political leader, T. Dan Smith. With Smith's support, he proposed, in the 1961 Plan for the Centre of Newcastle and the 1963 Development Plan Review, the demolition and redevelopment of many of the city's areas of old terraced housing and their replacement by new blocks of flats. These would be connected and supported by an improved and largely new road system, giving priority to traffic movement and separating pedestrians onto walkways. At the same time, the plan sought to conserve historic areas. However, Burns wrote that "the city centre must cater to the maximum extent possible for car traffic". In this approach, Burns was influenced by the American architect Victor Gruen, and the proposals for Newcastle were sometimes referred to as creating "the Brasilia of the North".[3][4][5][6][7] The local newspaper, the Evening Chronicle, stated:[3]
"The output of his department became prodigious. One radical plan after another—for new building, new roads, motorways, shopping centres, precincts—emanated from Mr Burns and his hardworking dedicated planning team. Reactions varied. Politicians became aerated with the visions of the future ..."
