Eco-towns (UK)

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Eco-towns are a proposed programme of affordable housing to be built in England. In 2007, Communities and Local Government (CLG) announced a competition to build up to 10 eco-towns.[1] Initially fifty companies were asked to bid.[2] The 10 locations will be finalised in the next six months. Ministers want five built by 2016, with the other half completed by 2020.

The primary purpose of the Eco-towns programme is to create affordable housing and secondarily to achieve high standards of sustainable living.[3] Some 30% to 40% of housing in each eco-town is to be allocated as affordable. The new towns will be largely car-free and the idea is that key-roads will be restricted to 15 m.p.h.[2]

The plans have proved controversial with campaigners saying the idea is a way to evade normal planning controls. Although it has to be noted that many are already 'enabled' in current plans. Professor David Lock, Chairman of the Town and Country Planning Assosciation and an expert adviser to the Government has made public that the Government plans to "to force through eco-towns"[4] by "crashing the planning process". This is in direct contradiction to the public statements of the Housing Minister.

Taking one short-listed location, the Ford site in Arun is identified as the general location for a new settlement in the sub-regional county plan as well as the draft South East regional spatial Strategy. In a public consultation to Arun District Council's core strategy issues and options, as part of the new local development framework, Ford is the preferred location for a new settlement from respondents. Arun District Council is currently holding an Inquiry into the suitability of the location as part of its response to the Government consultation documents.

The largest will provide up to 20,000 new homes, with officials saying the towns should be "zero-carbon" developments and should be exemplary in one area of sustainability, such as energy production or waste disposal. The new environmentally-friendly towns - low-energy, carbon-neutral developments built from recycled materials - will be the first new towns since the 1960s.

Many of these sites are proposed to be developed on either green belt, or in the case of Hanley Grange near Hinxton in Cambridgeshire on Grade 2 agricultural land, owned in part by a development company, Jarrow Investments, which works closely with supermarket giant Tesco. Local opposition through the Stop Hanley Grange Group of Parish Councils, is focussed on lack of infrastructure, overbuilding already in Cambridgeshire, and the proposal that the development of the eco town concept on such a scale is best dealt with through an alternative scheme at Northstowe, North of Cambridge.

The petition launched against the Hanley Grange plan was signed by Top Gear presenters Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond on 18 May 2008 at the Red Lion Pub at Hinxton, Cambs.


On 3 April, 2008, the shortlist of fifteen sites for the next phase of public consultations was announced.[5]

The shortlisted sites are:

The shortlist of fifteen sites will be trimmed down to 10 locations. Micheldever Station, Grovewood in the National Forest in Derbyshire and Shipton Quarry were among 42 locations which failed to make the shortlist.

[edit] References

  1. ^ BBC article on Gordon Brown's eco-towns announcement
  2. ^ a b BBC announcement retrieved 11 April 2008
  3. ^ "Eco-towns Prospectus", published by the Department of Communities and Local Government, 23 July 2007
  4. ^ Whitehall to force through eco-towns
  5. ^ BBC: 'Eco-towns' shortlist is revealed

[edit] External site

CLG's consultation on the 15 accepted eco-towns sites [www.stophanleygrange.org.uk Stop Hanley Grange]