By the mid-1960s, Kilmarnock Town Council were concerned expansion of the town and growth in car ownership would exacerbate a serious traffic problem in the central area.
In 1966 the town council commissioned Percy Johnson-Marshall, a leading planning consultancy based in Edinburgh, to prepare a plan that would deal with the traffic issue and review land use within the town centre.
The firm had redeveloped Coventry City Centre after the Second World War. More recently they were main architect for the all seated Celtic Park in Glasgow.